Infinity Crisis
by ColdCupoJoe
Summary: Hey everyone! This is an attempt to merge CW's Arrowverse and the MCU with the heroes of the Arrowverse taking on the MCU version of Thanos! This is longer than any of my battle series, and will be a multiple-chapter arc, but this takes the Arrowverse from before the Crisis event of 2019 and Thanos as his Infinity war incarnation as an alternative to the Anti-Monitor! Thanks/enjoy!
1. The Crisis Begins

Infinity Crisis

Ch 1 Crisis Begins in Central City

"A Crisis is coming. There is only one way to prove your Earth is ready. You will succeed or you will perish, there is no partial success. Gather your allies, you will need them if you hope for the smallest chance of success. The fate of your reality will be decided in Central City."

Oliver Queen stood in Star Labs, a place that had become familiar over the past few years of his allegiances. He stood in front of his allies from Central City; Barry Allen the Flash, Caitlin Snow Killer Frost, Ralph Dibny the Elongated Man, and Cisco Ramon formerly Vibe, all heroes in their own right.

They all looked at the verdant vigilante in shock, gathered in a semi-circle around a large computer console.

"So, Mar Novu wants another proof of worthiness?" Barry asked. The CSI folded his arms over his chest. The man was a born leader, one that Oliver had become proud to call his friend, even if it weren't for Allen's metahuman superpowers.

"I don't know if this is the test," Oliver retorted, his hands folded behind his back, "or the real deal. Novu isn't exactly an open book."

The room stood still with stagnating air as everyone shifted their weight uncomfortably. Cisco, the team's part engineer, part physicist, part hero, broke the silence first.

"So we've got to look out for Sauron's army now? White Walkers?" he piped up, drawing an eye roll from Barry. "It's as good of a guess as anyone's got!"

Barry paid his friend no mind, turning to Oliver, his arms still crossed.

"We'll keep the Star Lab satellite scanning, but our satellites are only focused over Central City. It'll take time for them to disperse to monitor globally."

"Can't you guys just 'borrow' a few others up there?" Dibny spoke up with finger quotations. "I mean you guys have hacked into everything from A.R.G.U.S. max security prisons to DeVoe's mind, a few floating space cameras can't be that difficult to get ahold of."

Cisco raised his finger to respond but was interrupted as a repeating alarm sounded through the facility. The semi-circle of computer monitors flashed red, a map popping up on the center screen and zooming in on a small, fast object flying through Central City's streets.

"Looks like we may not have to worry about more satellite coverage," Caitlin said, rushing to the monitor to clack away at the keys. "We're picking up a heat signature, flying fast downtown."

"Nazgul…" Cisco said under his breath, bouncing around the counter to see for himself.

Barry glanced over at Oliver, giving him a knowing look. Oliver returned a nod before lightning began sparking all around his friend. The bright orange sparks enveloped Barry as speed itself began to swirl around him. In faster than a blink of an eye, Barry held out his hand, the lightning bolt insignia ring opening to expel a bright crimson suit. In another blink he slipped into the suit and raced out the back door, lightning trailing close.

Oliver was left in the room with the remaining heroes, eyes flitting between Ralph and Caitlin.

"C'mon buddy," Ralph said, giving Oliver a pat on the shoulder as he passed. "I'm sure we can hook up a sidecar on my motorcycle for you."

Oliver glared with his first instinct, but gave way to rolling his eyes to follow Ralph and Caitlin out of the room. Cisco remained at the computer, typing away to keep the satellite image trained on the unidentified object.

"Winter has come for you," he said, tapping at the flying golden object on the screen.

The wind rushed past Barry Allen as his feet pounded away at the pavement, racing past pedestrians and cars as they stood relatively frozen in time around him. He darted in and out of traffic as he ran through downtown Central City, eyes trained on the sky between the tall buildings.

"He just hung south at Morrison Avenue!" Cisco's voice rang in Barry's earpiece, causing the speedster to bend his trajectory to the right.

Barry looked upward to see a bronze metal vehicle split into two parts connected by a hinge, resembling a chariot zipping between the skyscrapers. The vehicle was propelled by purple energy turbines on both the rear and front portions of the chariot. A single rider leaned over the side of the rear cab of the vehicle, aiming a long staff over its side and shooting bright blue energy blasts into the crowd below.

"They're targeting civilians!" Barry shouted into his communication device, gritting his teeth as he raced to the sidewalk. Even in super speed he could see the plasma bolts rapidly descending towards the people on the ground. Adrenaline and Speed Force rushed through his veins as he sped along, grabbing civilians and moving them out of the way just before the vaporizing blasts scorched the concrete.

"I can't get to him while he's still firing down on everyone!" Barry exclaimed, still hurriedly edging potential victims out of the way as he stayed underneath the chariot.

"Leave that to us!" Ralph Dibny radioed over comms. Barry looked behind him to see Ralph in his dark purple suit and domino mask weaving in and around the cars on a motorcycle, a sidecar attached holding Oliver Queen in his Green Arrow garb. Behind the chariot raced Killer Frost as well, icy blasts shooting out from her hands to form an ice slide track as she gained on the airborne vehicle.

Oliver stood in the sidecar, wobbling back and forth as his pilot weaved throughout traffic. His eyes bounced around his surroundings, analyzing everything as the situation developed.

"Frost! Freeze the engines!" Oliver held his hand to his earpiece to call over the radio. "Dibny, get us in front of him. I'm going to cut the chariot at the hinge."

"On it," Killer Frost said in her distorted voice, still using one hand to form her ice bridge and pulling up her other to shoot an icy blast at the rear of the vehicle. The back of the chariot became engulfed in ice, covering the rear purple engines.

The chariot slowed just enough for Ralph and Oliver to zoom underneath, drifting on the center line of the road as they passed the vehicle. Oliver reached behind to his quiver, retrieving an arrow and nocking it as they still slid, drawing the bow and aiming into the sky.

He loosed the arrow and the projectile cut through the air, spinning as it accelerated towards the chariot. The arrow pierced the hinge between the two chariot parts. A cylindrical attachment behind the arrowhead blinked bright red before igniting into an explosion, tearing the two chariot parts from each other. The front half of the chariot, the purple engines still firing, flew wildly into the sky as the back half began to hurdle towards earth.

A family of two looked up and screamed in horror as the debris fell, but before it crashed into them they were whisked away in a flash of lightning as Barry grabbed them, moving them to the other side of the street.

Ralph and Oliver's motorcycle and sidecar slid to a stop and the two slowly stepped out, approaching the crashed vehicle. Killer Frost landed on the ground behind the two, and Barry rushed upwards in another flash of lightning, holding his hand out to caution his compatriots.

Smoke billowed upward from the wreckage, the four heroes slowly advancing toward the hunk of metal. Barry reached up to his cowl to press his communication device.

"Cisco, is there anything alive still in there?" Barry asked, immediately getting a response.

"Can't tell, that metal is giving off some really weird vibrations like its not from this earth."

"There's no way like the old fashioned way," Ralph said, reaching out his arm. His arm stretched supernaturally long and his hand enlarged, being able to palm the smoking craft in one hand. He raised the craft with ease, lifting it a few feet before there was a bit of movement below the crash.

Before anyone could react, a reptilian-looking alien leaned out from underneath the wreck, a long, golden rifle encasing its arm. It had pale, almost translucent skin stretched over tight muscle fibers, with pieces of cybernetics grafted into its chest, shoulders, and arms. Its face bore narrow, lipless jaws, underneath two slits for its nose and beady yellow eyes set in a permanent scowl.

The alien raised its rifle arm and fired a bright blue blast of plasma at Ralph, striking him center in the chest. The blast scorched the metahuman, throwing him back into a moving van as he crashed through its side and flinging the wreckage away.

"Ralph!" Lightning surrounded Barry as he rushed over to his friend, putting his hand to Ralph's chest to analyze the wound. Before the alien could fire another round at the heroes, Oliver raised his bow with two arrows nocked.

Ollie fired his bow, one arrow landing in the barrel of the rifle and the other setting firmly into the alien's chest, a trickle of purple blood dripping from the new wound. The alien was unphased by the arrow, though, as it swung the rifle around to aim at the archer and pulled the trigger. The rifle exploded in the alien's hands, the arrow in the barrel doing its job as the rifle shattered and its remains scorched its arm. The alien recoiled in pain, holding its arm and snarling in a harsh, hissing cry.

"I've heard enough out of you," Killer Frost said, her hands dripping with icy frost. She held out her hands to fire an icy blast at the alien, throwing it against the side of a building, cracking the concrete and spiderwebbing the glass. The alien let out a whimper, then a breath, before falling to the ground, icy mist still flowing from Frost's blasts.

Flash zoomed back to Oliver and Frost as they gathered around the downed alien, his arm around a now walking, yet limping, Ralph.

"What the hell was that? I don't know if metahumans can get that ugly," Ralph asked, his suit torn but his skin underneath already turning from a scorched burn to healthy pink.

"Metahuman or not, we need to get it in the pipeline," Barry replied, handing Ralph off to the other two. In a blink of an eye, Barry disappeared into a streak of lightning, grabbing the alien and zipping off towards Star Labs.

Oliver and Caitlin were left back on the street with Ralph on their shoulders, looking at Star Labs on the horizon.

"He always leave you guys in the dust?" Oliver asked, loading his injured friend into the sidecar of the motorcycle.

"You get used to being the slow ones," Dibny replied, giving a wide smile as Oliver swung his leg over the motorcycle.

"You were always the slow one, Ralph," Frost smirked, holding her hand in front of her once more to begin her ice bridge. Ralph gave a pout as she formed the bridge and began sliding towards Star Labs.

The heroes stood on the other side of a metahuman-proof glass door, looking into the cell at the alien creature. It snarled as it clawed at the glass, before realizing its efforts were in vain. Its chest heaved as it breathed heavily, its golden eyes piercing into each of the humans on the other side of its cage.

"What the hell is it?" Oliver asked, still dawning his green outfit but with the hood retracted.

Cisco approached from behind, tapping away at a tablet. He got within inches of the glass cage, peering in intensely. The alien banged into the glass, giving Cisco a bit of a jolt as the alien gave a guttural chuckle, its eyes still full of hatred.

"Well it's no metahuman," Cisco said, pinching outward to enlarge a spinning image of DNA on his tablet. He pointed to the spinning structure, highlighting a third vertical helix. "Even if it weren't for the triple helix, this thing doesn't even have a carbon base, definitely not of this world."

"So… aliens? We're dealing with aliens now?" Ralph asked, chuckling a bit. He looked around the room expecting shocked faces, but was met with just solemn nods. "You guys are telling me you fought aliens before this?"

"At least twice," Cisco answered, echoed by the rest of the superpowered crew.

"No one tells me anything!" Ralph threw up his hands in exasperation, turning the corner and leaving the pipeline.

"So we should first ID what kind of alien this is?" Barry asked, turning to the rest of the group, a small triangular metal device pinched between his fingers. "Who better to ask than our friendly multiverse alien friend?"

Oliver nodded, taking a moment to turn to the other heroes.

"Don't worry," Cisco said before Oliver could speak a word. "We'll hold down the fort until you two get back, Earth is in good hands."

Oliver gave a knowing look to Cisco before turning to Barry. Barry held out the triangular device and pressed the button in its center. The air in front of the two heroes sparked and began to swirl into a dark portal, blue cloud-like energy flowing from its edges. Oliver and Barry nodded to each other before taking a leap through the portal to Earth-38.

Supergirl's red cape flitted behind her as she tore through the sky at supersonic speed. The cityscape below rushed past, the hero's eyes fixed on an object hurdling from the sky, enveloped in blazing hot flames. She turned her head to her side to see her green-faced ally, the Martian Manhunter, J'onn J'onzz, flying beside her.

"You stop the satellite, I'll make sure the landing zone is clear!" J'onn shouted above the rushing wind.

"It's headed for the port!" Supergirl shouted, pointing to the National City docks. A few tankers and tug boats putted along, blissfully unaware of the danger above. Manhunter nodded before taking a nosedive to the port and began pushing the large ships out of the way, shouting at the people to evacuate.

A sonic boom of air enveloped Kara Danvers as she angled herself upwards, bursting forth with incredible speed. She positioned herself underneath the falling satellite, the flames from its descent enveloping her. She felt no pain, however, as she pushed herself against the metal shell, using all of her strength to slow it down without shattering it into a million pieces.

Supergirl glanced down at the quickly approaching earth, J'onn just pushing the last boat free from the bay. She gritted her teeth as she pushed against the satellite, the flames dying down as it slowed its descent.

She smiled as she descended with the satellite, until a loud _CRACK_ sounded above her. A quick glance upward showed one of the solar panels snapping free, catching the wind and flying to the side.

"Debris!" Kara shouted, still safely escorting the rest of the satellite back to earth. Her vision zoomed to where the solar panel was falling to, a young couple looking horrified into the sky. Supergirl's eyes flashed from the satellite above her to the couple in fear.

"Need a hand?" a familiar voice rang in her ear. She smiled as her fear vanished, a flash of lightning sparking in her peripherals. The lightning overtook the couple, whisking them away just before the solar panel crashed into the pavement.

Supergirl lowered the satellite into the bay, the waves from its displacement crashing against the dock. Kara smiled as she flew over to the Flash, who was now standing triumphantly in front of the solar panel debris.

"Barry!" she exclaimed, opening her arms wide as she approached. Barry gleamed and returned the gesture, embracing Kara in a hug. "What are you doing here?"

As she asked, she heard the hum of a motorcycle. She broke the embrace with Barry and turned her head to see the Green Arrow, driving his motorcycle up to the docks. A wave of seriousness washed over Kara's face as she broke the hug, her back stiffening.

"We need your help," Barry told Kara as Oliver swung his leg off the bike.

"Anything you need," Kara responded with a nod.

[Department of Extra-Normal Operations, Earth-38]

A large television screen illuminated the dark conference room, the view from inside the holding cell in the Earth-1 pipeline showing the alien creature pacing angrily back and forth, hissing and snarling. Around a long table sat the Martian Manhunter J'onn J'onzz, Kara Danvers, her adoptive sister and Director of the D.E.O. Alex Danvers, Oliver Queen, Barry Allen, and the Coluan Querl Dox, otherwise known as Brainiac-5, all sharing an equal look of confusion and intrigue at the foreign alien on screen.

"That's quite odd," a voice came from the back of the room. Brainiac stood with his hands folded behind his back and walked close to the screen. The synthetic humanoid was clad in civilian clothes, otherwise indistinguishable from any other human on Earth besides his eccentric personality and precise vocal patterns.

"That is a Chitauri," Brainiac continued, bringing one of his hands forward and highlighting portions of the alien's physique.

"Chitauri?" J'onn spoke up curiously. "I've never heard of them."

"That is because they do not exist in this universe," Brainiac responded, pivoting to face the table. "There is no trace of their existence across our multiverse."

"Wait, _our_ multiverse? There can be other multiverses?" Barry asked, brow furrowed.

"Precisely," Brainiac nodded, moving to a whiteboard to the side of the television. He grabbed a blue marker and drew a large circle, filling it with smaller circles. "We all belong in these smaller circles, our own Earths, separated by vibrational space, as you know. Everything we know about our multiverse can be seen through these vibrational differences."

He flipped the whiteboard around, drawing another circle again filled with smaller ones, this time in red marker.

"Here lies a multiverse, all of its own, separated by forces inconceivable by mortal means. Your friend comes from one of these universes," Brainiac tapped on a small red circle before flipping the whiteboard around and tapping on a blue circle. "And somehow punched its way through to our multiverse."

"What can generate enough power to even be able to do that?" Barry asked. The room remained silent, Brainiac simply shrugged.

"Whatever it is, we need to make sure there aren't any more," Oliver said, eyeing the heroes of this Earth. "Is there any way you can track this thing's multiversal energy? Send it back to where it came from?"

"I shall begin scanning your Earth," Brainiac nodded, exiting the room with quick, deliberate footsteps.

The remaining heroes in the room silently watched the television screen. The Chitauri had taken a seat in the corner of the cell but its head twitched erratically, examining its surroundings in jerky motions.

"If you would like, we could help set up a D.E.O. on your Earth," Alex Danvers piped up, looking at both Barry and Oliver. "Most people on our Earth are still unaware of the existence of other earths, but we can entrust a small group to train…"

"Thank you, but no need," Oliver interrupted. "Our earth will find a way to defend itself. You should focus on defending Earth-38 should these aliens come here."

Alex hesitated, but nodded. Barry gave Oliver a look of confusion and concern.

"But," Barry spoke up, not breaking eye contact with Oliver, "we would love to have your expertise in extra-normal activity if this isn't an isolated case."

"We would be happy to lend a hand," J'onn said. As the last word exited his mouth, Brainiac returned carrying a tablet, his rhythmic footsteps tapping on the tile.

"Good news, Brainy?" Supergirl asked, her bright eyes lighting up.

"Bad news I'm afraid, very bad news," he responded, holding the tablet in front of his chest to face the room. "Are you familiar with Gotham City?"

"Yeah, we met Batwoman there last year," Barry said, his brow furrowing in alarm.

"Well they are under siege by the Chitauri," Brainiac declared. The whole room's eyes widened as they looked between each other. "They have been for the past two and a half hours."

"Suit up!" Oliver said, grabbing the bow from his back and setting his feet next to Barry. The Scarlet Speedster pulled the dimensional extrapolator from his belt and held it out, forming the black and blue portal back to Earth-1. In the blink of an eye, J'onn J'onzz swapped into his suit and his skin morphed green, Brainiac's hologram disguise faded to reveal his blue Coluan form, and Supergirl stood at the ready. With a shared nod they all leapt through the portal to Gotham.

Stay tuned for Invasion of Gotham City!


	2. Invasion of Gotham City

Ch2 Invasion of Gotham

Heavy smoke and ash were the first sensations to wash over the heroes as they stepped out of the portal into Gotham. They found themselves on a street of empty cars, doors flung wide open as if they were abandoned quickly. The green Nolan Street sign dangled precariously from its pole, its rusty creaking audible in the hauntingly quiet street.

"Where is everyone?" Barry asked, looking into a car. He pulled out a stuffed bear and feared the worst.

"I still hear them," Supergirl reassured the speedster, pointing to the ground. "They sound like they're taking cover underground, metro tunnels and the sewers."

"I feel them as well," J'onn confirmed, his mind scanning the city. "They are scared, but safe."

As they cautiously stepped through the street, a motorized hum caught their attention. The five heroes turned, their heads craned to see a black aircraft vaguely shaped like a bat weaving between the skyscrapers. Behind the aircraft were dozens of Chitauri chariots in pursuit, blue plasma fire scorching the wings of the craft.

Supergirl and Martian Manhunter nodded to each other before leaping into the air. They flew up to keep parallel with the aircraft, which had passed over the other land-based heroes at this point. Kara looked into the glass front to see Batwoman in the cockpit, her dark suit and red wig looking battered and dusty presumably from combat.

Kara smiled and waved, to which Batwoman responded with a face of annoyance, yet Kara could notice a hint of relief in her eyes.

"We'll take care of them!" Supergirl shouted, motioning to J'onn near the other wing. Batwoman saluted from within the cockpit, cranking her throttle hard to the right to bank down another street. Supergirl and Martian Manhunter angled themselves to an upright position, turning to see the horde of Chitauri chariots.

Without hesitation, Supergirl's eyes burned blue and twin fiery light blue beams shot forth, cutting through swaths of the alien horde. As the chariots altered their path to avoid the laser fire, J'onn accelerated into battle.

He ducked and weaved through the plasma fire the Chitauri were firing with ease. Upon reaching the closest chariot, he pulled the driver from their seat, sending the rest of the chariot colliding with the street below. J'onn threw the alien into another mass of chariots, damaging them so that they, too, fell from the sky.

"They really have this alien invasion thing down," Barry said on the ground, nudging Brainiac-5 on the shoulder.

"I, too, am what you would consider an alien, Mr. Allen," Brainiac turned, deadpan. Barry slowly returned his hand to his side, his eyes averted so he didn't see both Brainiac and Oliver crack a smile and a side glance.

The rush of wind caught the heroes' attentions as Batwoman's aircraft rounded the corner of another skyscraper and gliding to a clear part of the highway to land. The cockpit glass popped open and Batwoman crawled out of the seat, jumping to the ground with a wince and a limp. Barry raced over to her, offering a shoulder to which she only scowled.

"When were you going to tell us Gotham was being invaded?" Oliver asked, shouldering his bow as he approached.

"I had it under control," Batwoman said through her clenched teeth, whether from pain or in attempt of intimidation it was unsure, both were passable.

"Clearly," Barry said, head turning upward. The battle still raged in the sky, more chariots coming from seemingly nowhere as reinforcements.

"They have been sending scouts for the past week," Batwoman said, motioning to the chariots above. "Gotham has the duck and cover drills down by this point. This is the largest one yet, but they were almost on their way back through their portal."

"Portal?" Barry asked. Batwoman nodded pointing to a large skyscraper with the Wayne Incorporated logo emblazoned on its roof level. Above the tower opened a massive hole in the sky, stars in the black of space seen through the portal though it was the middle of the day. Through the hole flew more chariots and what seemed to be a giant armored slug as long as a train.

"It only appears every few days. Apparently today is a little more than a scouting party," Batwoman grimaced, limping back to her aircraft.

"You need to rest, we have it handled from here," Oliver said sternly, grabbing Batwoman's arm. She yanked her arm away, glancing over her shoulder with fire in her eyes.

"This is _my_ city. I'm not giving up that responsibility just because you people decided I needed help," Batwoman snarled, hoisting herself into her aircraft. Barry shrugged as Oliver gave him a glance asking to back him up.

"I'll give support in the Batwing, today we find a way to push them back and close that portal for good." Batwoman continued as the cockpit window closed and her vehicle roared to life. The aircraft lifted off the ground and slowly turned, the flaming thrusters on the back of the ship lighting up as it tore through the sky between the skyscrapers.

"Aww we missed her?" Supergirl asked, slowly floating to the ground behind Oliver, Barry, and Brainiac-5. Behind her was Martian Manhunter, glowing red eyes fixed on the portal still spilling out alien forces.

"The Chitauri are not slowing down," J'onn noticed, turning to the other heroes.

"Then we plug the hole," Oliver said with a clenched fist. "Kara, meet them as they come out of the portal and see if you can halt any reinforcements."

Supergirl nodded before blasting into the sky.

"J'onn, can you handle the Chitauri already in the city?" Oliver continued, turning to the green Martian.

"I will see if I can mentally link to them and shut them down that way," J'onn said, his eyes glowing a deeper red. "They seem to have a hive mind, but their cybernetics may make this more difficult."

"I would like to volunteer, if no one else will, to combat the space leviathan. It truly looks fascinating," Brainiac-5 said, eyes flitting between the heroes. Everyone collectively nodded and Brainy gave a slight fist pump. "Fantastic, thank you for bringing me along!"

"If I build up enough speed I think I could counter the portal's rotation," Barry pointed out. "I just don't know if I can get close enough."

"Do it," Oliver said. Barry nodded and in a flash of lightning he was gone. J'onn flew off as well just as the first Chitauri chariot flew overhead. An alien jumped down from the chariot in front of Oliver, swinging its large bladed staff.

The hero in green ducked as the staff swung wildly over his head. He pulled an arrow from his back and both nocked and fired it in one fluid motion into the foot of the Chitauri, pinning it to the ground. Purple blood sprayed in Oliver's face but he did not let that stop his onslaught as he followed with a quick uppercut into the alien's jaw and then whipped his bow around to bludgeon it in its unarmored temple.

The alien dropped to the ground, dead or unconscious Oliver did not have time to analyze as another three chariots turned down the street and began their approach.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing Barry," Oliver muttered under his breath as he readied another arrow.

[]

Kara Danvers blitzed through the air, the wind rushing in her ears as she accelerated into the sky. Ahead of her she could see the black silhouette of Batwoman's airship, and beyond that the swirling blue/black portal, a legion of Chitauri still pouring out of it.

Batwoman's ship fired its twin miniguns mounted on the wings at the oncoming horde, taking out dozens of the reptilian aliens at a time and sending them hurdling to the ground. Supergirl took her place beside the Batwing in the sky, using her heat vision to melt the chariots as they both climbed in altitude. Supergirl looked over and gave the woman inside the craft another smile and a wave.

"What are you doing here?" Batwoman shouted, her eyes still focused forward, though Supergirl could hear her just fine even through the glass cockpit with her super hearing. "They need you more down on the ground."

As Batwoman spoke, a chariot glanced off of her wing, knocking a Chitauri warrior out. The alien grabbed ahold of the back of the plane and reached back with one of its arms to pull a plasma blade from its back. It swung into the plane's wing, bright orange sparks erupting from the gash as the left engine began smoking. Supergirl flew over and backhanded the highjacker off of the Batwing before returning to blasting the airborne chariots.

"You should leave flying to the professionals!" Supergirl shouted back with a smile, spinning mid-air to avoid an oncoming chariot before looking back to hit it with another blast of heat vision.

The two continued to fly to the portal, the stream of Chitauri becoming denser and denser as they approached. The aliens began firing their plasma blasts as they exited the portal and while the initial didn't do much to Supergirl, the strikes on her exposed skin had began to burn like a bad sunburn, only getting worse as the plasma started to burn through her suit. Batwoman did not fair any better in her ship, as her smoking engine burst into flames with repeated battering and the plasma beginning to tear away at the ship's hull, blasting off bits of metal and exposing frayed wires.

Though the sun shone down, Kara could feel the solar energy in her cells depleting with every sweep of her heat vision, the fatigue weighing her down like a lead blanket but she couldn't let up. She banked left and right to avoid the falling Chitauri, felled by her lasers, Batwoman's plane, or still on their chariots descending toward the ground. Her reactions were starting to slow, but she gritted her teeth and kept pushing forward, close enough to the portal that the cloud of oncoming Chitauri was too thick to see through.

"I'm hit!" came the cry from the Batwing. Kara glanced over to see the aircraft begin to lose altitude, pillars of smoke and flame erupting from both of its engines as plasma fire continued to rain down on it.

Kara clenched her jaw, she couldn't believe she didn't see it coming but she wasn't about to let her friend fall to her death. She whipped herself around and jetted downward at nearly mach speed to the aircraft. As she did, Batwoman pulled a lever inside the cockpit and with a squealing hiss the glass carapace popped off and the vigilante's seat ejected her into the sky.

Supergirl caught Batwoman's seat by the back just before it collided with an oncoming Chitauri chariot, the strapped in vigilante giving a slight sigh of relief before returning to her stoic visage as Supergirl began flying the both of them to the earth pursued by a few of the chariot-bound aliens.

"I had it under control," Batwoman growled, pulling a bat-shaped metal piece from her belt and throwing it at one of their pursuers.

"I know you did," Supergirl smiled, though the fatigue was catching up with her as it pained her a bit.

They reached the streets of Gotham safely as they ducked into an alley, looking around as the Chitauri swarmed the skies and began to dismount their chariots to take to the streets. Kara could still see J'onn J'onzz fighting the Chitauri, pulling the attention of many of the alien forces to him, and the small blue speck of Brainiac-5 firing energy blasts at the enormous flying leviathan.

"Thank you…" Batwoman mumbled, stumbling to a sit leaning against the brick wall of the alley.

"I don't think I caught that," Supergirl teased, walking to her fellow hero, examining her wounds with her X-Ray vision. A look of concern spread across her face as she saw the extent of Batwoman's injuries. Five broken ribs, fractured left radius and ulna, dislocated left shoulder, and countless other hairline fractures.

"How are you even conscious?" Supergirl asked worriedly as Batwoman slowly blinked, catching her breath.

"I told you, I'm fine," Batwoman hissed, attempting to stand. Her legs buckled though, and she gave a wince of pain as she sank back to the ground. The pain seared through her whole body, immobilizing her against the brick wall.

"You are so _not_ fine," Supergirl comforted, her hand resting on Batwoman's bad shoulder. The vigilante began to raise her hand to bat Kara away, but stopped as the girl of steel gave her a caring look. She sighed and tore an already ripped portion free from her suit, placing the durable material between her teeth and gave Supergirl a nod.

"I can't do much about the broken bones, but I picked up a few tricks at the D.E.O. Three… Two…" On the two Supergirl pushed on Batwoman's shoulder, the joint giving a satisfactory *pop* as it set into place. Batwoman clenched her jaw on the suit portion in her mouth, digging deep marks in the durable material, but then let the portion drop to the pavement as the pain subsided.

"They won't stop coming, you need to get back up there," Batwoman said, reaching up to pull her cowl off of her face. The cowl rested like a hoodie on the top of her back, the hair tips of the red wig attached to the top brushing the ground. Supergirl knew the face under the mask to be Kate Kane even before she removed the cowl, but the look of exhaustion took her by surprise. Kate's usually scowled face now showed eyes heavy with sleep deprivation, bruising all up the right side of her neck and jaw, and a gash above her eye now dripping blood down her small chin.

"I'm not leaving you here, not like this," Kara said, looking above. The Chitauri swarmed over the city, only growing in number as they blazed through the sky. "We're going to get through this together."

"I'll be fine, you save today so I can save your ass tomorrow," the corner of Kate's mouth twitched a bit, the smallest hint of a smile, as she nodded and closed her eyes. Kara stood, examining her surroundings, keeping her ears peeled for signs of her friends but could only hear the sound of the whizzing chariots and general destruction being caused to the city.

"Where are you at, Barry," Supergirl wondered, gathering up enough strength to fly out for another round.

[]

Screams echoed through the subway tunnels as families huddled against the dirty tile walls and as out of sight as they could make themselves. Other than the people, there were heavy footsteps and heavy breathing as a Chitauri warrior thundered its way into the depths of the tunnels.

A small boy shrieked, alerting the Chitauri soldier. The alien shouted a guttural snort out of the tunnel entrance, to which five more foot soldiers responded, entering with their long bladed staffs aimed like rifles at the civilians. They poked at the humans taking cover, cries and whimpers echoing through the cavernous tunnels as the Chitauri's staffs fired their first volley of plasma fire.

Time stood still as the red streak of the Flash darted into the subway tunnel, hurdling over the turnstile and examining the situation. Six Chitauri, six bubbling blobs of plasma slowly approaching a family cowering against the wall while many more watched in horror.

Barry wasted no time running to the helpless civilians, bright yellow lightning trailing behind him. He grabbed the young boy first, supporting his neck as he moved him out of the way of the plasma, quickly followed by the boy's parents.

He turned to see the Chitauri still angrily pointing their staves forward, the plasma bolts had moved by about a foot in the time, but still had a ways to go before striking what was now just the tile wall. The Flash ducked under one of the blasts and grabbed the bladed staff of one of the frozen Chitauri, yanking it loose and smacking him upside the head, the impact frozen in time as the alien's beady eyes had not yet even registered the pain. His feet beat the concrete as he sprinted to the other Chitauri. He swung through each of the Chitauri with one punch connecting with each of their jaws, with five times enough force to knock out a normal human according to Barry's experience.

Barry slowed his body down from the speed force and time began to resume as the lightning faded around him. The plasma bolts gained speed first, slamming into the white tile, charring it black but not causing any harm to their would-be targets. The Chitauri all took their falls simultaneously, the first warrior flipping backwards from the force of the blow and the others dropping instantly unconscious.

"You're alright, it's going to be okay," Barry smiled reassuringly at the crowd. They all remained cowering, keeping the children behind the adults as the citizens of Gotham had learned to fear super powered beings.

The young boy that Barry moved, however, stepped out from behind his parents, extending his hand and blinked heavily behind his thick framed glasses. He was no older than 5, his dark brown hair trimmed into a bowl cut treading the line between cute and horrid looking. Barry beamed a pearly smile and knelt to shake the boy's hand.

"You were so brave," Barry said as the boy returned the grin. "You need to continue being brave for all these people, can you do that for me?"

The boy nodded without hesitation, his chest puffed as he sank back behind his parents.

"Barry, how's shutting down that portal?" came Oliver Queen's voice in the Flash's lightning bolt earpiece. In the background he could hear explosions, the _thwip_ of a snapping bowstring, and the cry of falling Chitauri.

"The Chitauri were targeting the civilians in the tunnels, but they're safe now. I'll focus on the portal now," Barry said, holding his earpiece. He gave one final look to the civilian crowd before racing out of the subway back to the surface. The light temporarily blinded the superhero, but when his eyes adjusted his mouth dropped as he saw the sky flooded with the alien threat, the chariots zipping between every building chasing Supergirl and the Martian Manhunter racing back and forth. Heavy plasma fire continued to fire from the chariots, scorching the buildings below, some having already caused fires in the less well maintained districts.

"Oh this is not good…" Barry gasped to himself, eyes darting through the swirling cloud of aerial reinforcements. Every now and then he caught a glimpse of the portal the aliens were streaming out of, the inky black of space visible inside the swirling blue ether.

"Even if I close the portal, there's not way we can take out the Chitauri army already through it!" Barry said through his comms, a small hint of fear slowly setting in.

"We won't have to," J'onn J'onzz's deep voice echoed in Barry's ear. "I've analyzed their mental patterns, they have a hive mind but they rely on orders from their mothership. If the mothership is far enough out of range, their minds will have nothing motivating their thoughts, essentially shutting them down."

"So close the portal, no more problem?" Barry asked, reaching his ankle behind him to stretch.

"Theoretically, probability says that should work," Brainiac-5 called out, still being chased by the Chitauri leviathan in the distance. Barry could see the blue dot turn around and give a precise punch to the side of the Leviathan's head. The giant worm's jaw instantly went slack as it crashed unconscious into a skyscraper emblazoned with a large W under construction. "I should warn you that there is a 6.3 percent chance that they will not shut down, but devolve into an uncoordinated horde until a new hive mind is found."

"We'll have to take those odds," Barry said, his eyes lighting up with sparks of electricity. He pushed off the pavement, the force of his feet cracking the concrete and his arms beat in pace. Barry took a deep breath as he pivoted from the sidewalk to the glass side of a building, he felt his stomach turning as his body turned horizontal and he began running up the skyscraper.

He reached the roof in no time and stood on the edge, looking at the swarm above, waiting for the perfect moment. As soon as he saw his shot, he backed up a few steps and shot forward, leaping off the edge.

Lightning trailed Barry as his feet planted on the hull of the closest chariot. Before the driver could even turn its gaze to his momentary passenger, Barry leapt to the next chariot, and the next, slowly increasing his altitude with every leap.

Though the right leaps were hard to find for the first few jumps, the chariots' formation had become much tighter as he approached the portal. At this point he was practically stepping from chariot to chariot rather than leaping, the smokey blue halo around the portal almost within reach if he extended his arm.

Barry turned himself on his side again, counter-parallel to the clockwise spinning of the portal's halo. He felt the rush of wind from below rushing into the vacuum of space above. In the blackness of space he saw what had to be the Chitauri mothership, an enormous battle craft in black and blue with four thick prongs jutting forward. From each of the prongs flew wave after wave of alien reinforcements with no sign of stopping.

The Flash dug deep within himself, letting out a shout as he ran faster and faster around the portal. As he did, the smoke began to halt its swirl and begin to be sucked into the portal with the rush of air. The portal within the halo began to shrink as Barry ran, his circle getting tighter as it did.

The portal's circle became too tight for Barry to run around, but even as he stopped the portal kept shrinking under its own momentum. He smiled as the portal blinked out of existence. All around, he could see the Chitauri soldiers go limp, their chariots beginning to drop like flies. Barry turned himself back toward the ground, jumping again from chariot to chariot, though it proved to be a bit more difficult as they were all oriented in different directions without their guiding pilots.

Barry had only taken a few leaps when his foot caught a bad angle on a bronzed ridge of a chariot, tripping him and sending his body flying into the open air.

"Guys! Help!" Barry shouted as he flailed his arms, his superspeed completely nullified while airborne. Before he knew it, however, a friendly face in blue was in front of him, holding him in their arms.

"What's with everyone and deciding to try out flying today?" Supergirl asked, a bright white smile on her face. Barry chuckled a bit as they descended back into the city. The streets were littered with the bodies of Chitauri and their vehicles, all laying motionless. The other heroes all stood on the dead street awaiting Barry's return. Kara set Barry gracefully on the ground, both of their smiles offset by the harsh faces of Oliver Queen's and Kate Kane's.

"So that's it, we're done?" J'onn J'onzz asked.

"You're done," Batwoman said, her cowl returned to cover her face.

"We stopped the Chitauri, but we still don't know why they attacked, or when they'll be back," Oliver said, stepping over an alien body. As he said that, there was a whooshing sound behind the heroes. They all turned with renewed attention, ready for combat. Another large black portal with swirling blue smoke formed in the street, out stepping a man the heroes wished they would never have to see again.

"You have succeeded in the first stepping stone in this test," the figure said, deep and rhythmically. The large silhouette of the Monitor stood in portal, his cape flowing to the ground covering his suit of celestial armor. In his hands he held six small stones, pulsating with light and power.

"Is it time? Is this the crisis?" Barry stepped forward, confronting the being.

"I told you the fate of your reality would be decided in Central City, this was merely an initial test of your resolve," the Monitor said. The heroes looked at each other, then their gaze settled on the rocks in his hands.

"Those stones are giving off some incredible energy signatures, off even my observational ranges," Brainiac-5 said, reaching forward a bit. Monitor retracted his hands to keep them out of reach of the Coluan.

"They are Infinity Stones, remnants of the creation of another universe that hold power over the fundamental forces of creation, and any one stone can not be handled by individuals without proper affinity for their elements," Monitor said, plucking the smooth blue stone away between his thumb and index finger. The stone glowed a light blue and another portal opened beside the monitor, out stumbling Cisco Ramone.

"What the frack?!" Cisco exclaimed, tripping on a Chitauri body and falling onto the streets. He quickly straightened himself out seeing the surrounding heroes, and turned to the Monitor who brought him here.

"Cisco Ramone, you are currently not in possession of your powers, but for you to have a purpose in the coming battle Vibe must live again, and thus I bestow upon you the Space Stone," Monitor said, dropping the blue stone into Cisco's palm. As the stone touched him, the blue energy raced up his arm to the rest of his body, illuminating his veins before quickly dying out. Cisco felt his vibrational powers return to him, a slight rush of adrenaline followed by sheer dread.

"No," Cisco said, backing away, his eyes wide. "No, my powers are gone, and there is a reason for that, Mr. Muttonchops!"

The Monitor paid him no mind, however, as he waved his hand to materialize Cisco's vibe-enhancing glasses, placing them next to the stone.

"Now serve your higher purpose," Monitor said, turning to the rest of the heroes. He extended the angular yellow stone, approaching the Martian.

"J'onn J'onzz, the last Green Martian, your mental powers are unsurpassed by any of this multiverse, making you the prime candidate for the mind stone," Monitor said, dropping the yellow stone into his hand. The stone glowed, the same yellow energy quickly running through his veins before subsiding. J'onn said nothing, but simply gazed deeply into the translucent yellow stone. He could feel his mind reaching out even further than he thought possible, able to feel the mind of every living being in the city, if not further.

"Oliver Queen," Monitor approached Supergirl, plucking another stone out of his hand, this time the orange one. "You have spent your life trying to find your humanity, sacrificing everything to regain your soul. You have proven worthy of the Soul Stone, do not take this lightly.

"Kara Danvers," Monitor continued, turning to Supergirl. He palmed the remaining three stones, Purple, Green, and Red, and dumped them into Supergirl's hand. The three stones surged with energy, dropping Kara to her knee before she gathered enough strength to stand, the energy dissipating. "To you I give you the greatest burden. For yourself, the power stone, for your limitless potential. You must guide the other stones to their rightful bearers, the Reality Stone for the warlock, master of magic beyond this realm, and the Time Stone for the lost canary, who has more control over the timeline than any other mortal being.

"I have given you the tools for success, it is now up to you to save your universe where so many others have failed," Monitor finished, turning to the group in total. Oliver stepped forward, placing his stone in a pouch in his belt.

"What have they failed at? What are we facing?" Oliver asked gruffly. At that, another swirling portal opened beside the Monitor and out stepped an unfamiliar man to the team of heroes. He was about average height, a black suit with blue accents covering his muscular body, emblazoned with two large lightning bolts from his shoulders to his waist. His face was the only uncovered part of him, revealing a middle-aged black man with a close-shaved haircut and a well-trimmed beard, eyes covered by an angular domino mask.

"He calls himself Thanos," the man said, a deep sadness in his voice. "He… came to my world and cut through us like we were ants. There was nothing we could do to stop him and… he wiped out half of my world. My entire family… my wife… my two daughters… he snapped his fingers and he turned them to dust… and then he fled. Off to another earth in his warped sense of obligation."

The street fell silent at this revelation, all pondering what they could do against such a force.

"Where Jefferson Pierce's world failed, you must succeed," Monitor broke the silence. "For Thanos to succeed, he must have the Infinity Stones you are now in possession of. You must protect them with your lives or he will accomplish his goal of wiping out half of all life not only on your world, but in your entire galaxy. I must tend to my own trials, but I have faith in you all."

With that, as quickly as the Monitor arrived, he disappeared through another portal that formed behind him, leaving the heroes along with the newly arrived Jefferson Pierce standing in the street. Seconds passed like hours as the heroes all pondered their situation.

Barry stepped forward first, extending a hand to Jefferson, who took it in a firm shake.

"Barry Allen, the Flash," Barry introduced himself, Jefferson nodded in understanding. "I'm sorry for your loss, we'll find a way to help your world recover."

"Black Lightning," Jefferson returned the introduction, looking at the rest of the heroes behind Barry. "Nothing will ever be okay again, not after what Thanos did, but I am not here for vengeance. I am here for justice, to honor my family's memory, and I will rage against the dying of the light."

"Dylan Thomas?" Barry raised an eyebrow. Jefferson cracked a grin beneath his sad eyes.

"Well alright, Flash," Jefferson said, a sense of respect washing over his face. "We stop Thanos by any means necessary, and you all have what my Earth never had."

"Which is?" Oliver asked from the rear. A brief moment passed before Jefferson met Oliver's eyes.

"A pissed off Black Lightning."

[][]

Stay tuned for the next chapter, Assembling the League!


	3. Assembling the League

Ch. 3 Assembling the League

[Star City, Washington, the Glades]

Rene Ramirez jumped from rooftop to dilapidated rooftop, eyes trained below on a man fleeing down the street. The man wore a suit, but Rene knew the man was responsible for countless members of the Glades community losing their homes, or worse their lives, because of his corruption.

"Not that way," Rene said as the man tried to turn left at a T-junction in the street. He fired his pistols just in front of the man's feet, causing him to panic and turn to run down the other street.

This cat and mouse chase lasted minutes, the suited man running out of breath as he turned the corner into a darkened alley. As he did, however, he was met with the metallic *_THWACK*_ of a steel bo-staff striking him in the face, sending him to the ground holding his now broken nose.

"What the fu…" the man started, the blood from his nose running over his blabbering mouth. He was cut short as the metal bo-staff swung within an inch of his face, his eyes crossing to see the tip. Holding the staff was a woman in a black leather jacket topping her fishnet leggings, her face obscured by a black domino mask with piercing green eyes peeking out. The man recognized his assailant as one of Star City's infamous vigilantes, Black Canary.

"I really don't have time for your bull," Dinah said, poking the man in his nose. The cartilage cracked even more as the man's head was forced back into the pavement to avoid more pain. "Who is your supplier?"

A thud behind her sounded the arrival of Rene, garbed in his Wild Dog hockey suit and hockey mask, his two pistols ready at his side. There was a hum of twin motorcycles approaching, as two bikes roared to a stop in front of the alley. On one was Mr. Terrific, another vigilante wearing a leather jacket and a large black "T" plastered onto his face, and the other was Spartan, the de-facto leader of the Star City vigilantes after the absence of the Green Arrow, his armored helmet glowing a faint green while still protecting his identity.

The thug lay on the ground, looking frantically around as the vigilantes converged on his position, a growing sense of fear overtaking him. Spartan, John Diggle, however was more focused on reaching Rene and Dinah than the downed man. A simple look from the veteran vigilante and Dinah raised her bo-staff, returning it to a resting stance at her side. The man looked around confusedly, but did not waste this opportunity and rose to his feet, running away with his hand covering his broken nose.

"What's the deal? We've been trying to get this guy all night," Rene questioned. Diggle's eyes shot daggers at him, though, making him shrink behind Black Canary.

"Oliver needs us in Central City," Mr. Terrific, Curtis Holt, said from behind Diggle. John nodded in confirmation.

"We don't have much time then," Dinah said, collapsing her bo-staff and attaching it to her hip. As she said that, however, a gust of wind blew through the street, causing papers and debris to fly into the alley. A large metallic spaceship-looking vehicle coasted to a stop, hovering just above the pavement. The ship had two large prongs on the front of the ship, in the center of the prongs was a swirling enigmatic mass of energy and metal rings, stopping its spinning and hovering as the ship stopped.

"Time's something we have to spare," a female's voice came across the heroes' communication, a familiar voice to Diggle as Sara Lance, the White Canary. He smiled as the ship landed, the road being just wide enough for the Waverider to park, a ramp extending on its side for the heroes to board.

[Yunnan Province, China]

The mountain monastery stood in isolation, surrounded by towering trees on all sides. Sounds of birds chirping in peace filled the valley below, undercut slightly by the rhythmic chanting of the monks roving throughout the building's courtyard.

There was a small red roofed pagoda on one end of the monastery's yard on the top of a steep cliff's edge, a single occupant sitting cross-legged on a white cushion in its center.

"I am calm, I am present, I am centered," the man repeated to himself, eyes closed in meditation. He did not wear the traditional robes, instead he wore a sweatjacket over a red lowcut shirt and jeans, representative of his American home.

He peeked his eyes open, seeing the monks around him. The man sighed to himself as he saw the monks all at a standstill, frozen in time.

"I am calm, I am present, I am centered," he repeated, practicing his breathing. "I am calm, I am present, I am centered."

He continued his mantra and as he did the monks regained their motion, carrying on their duties of maintaining the monastery as the time-stopping effects speed force subsided in him. It had been months since he had used his powers over the speed force intentionally. Maybe that's why his powers have been kicking in occasionally, maybe it was the stress of heroing finally catching up with him, maybe it was one of a million unexplained phenomena of the speed force that the team in Central City would be on top of within the week. All he knew was this place helped him before, it would help him again.

"Wally? Wally West?" a voice called out from the courtyard. Wally turned his head. Walking across the courtyard was a man in a fur lined coat, his piercing eyes sticking out against his dark complexion within the coat's hood. Wally stood up, brushing the dirt off of his pants as the man approached.

"Depends on who you are and what you need," Wally said with a wry smile, though the man's stoic face did not return the smile.

"My name is J'onn J'onzz," the man said, extending a hand to shake. Wally shook the man's hand, an incredibly strong grip meeting his. "Your friends in Central City need you to return, we all need your help."

"Why wouldn't Barry come find me? Or Cisco?" Wally stood a moment, contemplating. Though he was not opposed to helping his friends, his family, in Central City, he knew it always came at a price.

"Because you've been off the grid for a while, Mr. West," J'onn said. J'onn's eyes glowed a faint red briefly as he looked into Wally's eyes, causing Wally to double-take at the mysterious man. "And no one can find people like a Manhunter."

[National City, California, Earth-38, CatCo Worldwide Media]

The CatCo offices were nearly dead with the slow news day, the reporters and journalists lazily shuffling through papers on their desk as they tapped away at their laptops. The televisions around the office were just now showing the news footage of Supergirl catching the crumbling satellite from the previous day, a bold blue headline underneath reading "Supergirl a Failure, Saved by Red Streak."

One of the reporters, Nia Nal, rolled her eyes at the television, knowing well and true that the Channel 3 news team threw the headline up there just to catch more views, but unintentionally or not they were actively tarnishing the good will Kara had spent her whole superheroine career building. She stood from her desk, marching to her boss's office, separated from the rest of the office by soundproof semi-transparent glass. At the metallic desk backed by a dozen and a half televisions sat another close friend, James Olsen, pinching the bridge of his nose. James opened his eyes as Nia entered, a pearly smile wiping away his frown.

"What's up Nia?" James grinned, closing his laptop to give Nia his undivided attention.

"How can we let KPJT News on channel 3 get all this publicity ruining Supergirl?" Nia asked, nearly shouting in anger. "They're a full day late on all this but they're painting the whole story to make her look terrible! Can't we push out a press release saying she and the Flash planned to work on it together or something?"

"I know, I know, but we already published all of Supergirl's side of the story yesterday as soon as it happened, it wouldn't make sense to go to war with KPJT over this," James reassured her, taking a cautious glance to make sure the door behind Nia was fully closed. "Besides this isn't the first time Kara has fought against bad publicity. One of her most dangerous foes, but she can get through this like it's just another Tuesday."

The cellphone on James' desk buzzed to life, shaking its way almost onto the floor. He caught it as it approached the edge and held it up to his ear.

"Olsen," he answered, holding one finger up to Nia. Nia rolled her eyes, frustrated, as she turned to leave. "Of course, Guardian will be there."

Nia turned, one eyebrow raised. 'D.E.O.' James mouthed. She pointed to herself, miming a domino mask on herself. James cracked a smile and gave her a nod.

"You'll have the best of the best," James said over the phone before hanging up and turning to Nia. "Let's take a trip."

"We're not done talking about this Supergirl thing," Nia said, pointing to the televisions. James looked up at the screens before sliding his laptop into a bag and slinging the bag over his shoulder while walking toward the door.

"How about we buy some pot stickers on the way and we postpone this until tomorrow?" James said with a smile. Nia groaned, almost in tandem with the rumbling of her stomach.

"Okay fine, but only if you're buying," Nia laughed as the two of them stepped out of the office and to the elevator.

[Starling City, Washington, Earth-2]

A deafening scream roared through the dark abandoned warehouse, the shockwave shattering glass and sending bodies flying. Gunshots erupted in response, followed by the thwang of a bow string and the whizzing of arrows arrows, followed by more screams, and back and forth for another few volleys.

The lights were thrown on to reveal only two arms-dealers left standing in the building, their machine guns wildly sweeping the room. They could find no one else in the enormous room, however, the surplus of boxes and tarped-over cars hiding their assaulters.

Another arrow flew from the rafters catching one of the men in the chest, throwing him instantly to the ground incapacitated. The second man swung his gun upward, peppering the roof but the bullets only finding the sheet metal, perforating the metal and streaming beams of moonlight into the building.

The gangster's eyes were still pointed upward trying to find his assailant, blinding him to the incoming blow of another hero's metal staff connecting with his temple and instantly knocking him unconscious. Laurel Lance, the Black Canary, stood over the body as she grabbed the man's rifle, inspecting it for any trace of origin. An arrow landed beside her, an anchor for a zipline as a familiar figure in a green hood used his bow to ride the cable to the ground floor, taking his side next to the heroine of Starling City.

"What are we looking at, Pretty Bird?" asked the man under the hood, Adrian Chase. Starling City's District Attorney by day, Chase had recently taken the mantle of the city's famous vigilante in the wake of the Robert Queen's imprisonment, but he had promised the original Hood he would rid this city of crime if it took every ounce of his strength to do so.

Laurel extended the rifle to Adrian. He took it, turning it in his hands and examining every imprinted number on its frame.

"The serial numbers on this gun match those coming off of a Russian shipping vessel," Laurel explained, running her finger against a line of numbers along the barrel.

"So, are we thinking Bratva?" Adrian asked nudging an unconscious body on the ground, answered by Laurel's nod. As the words passed Adrian's lips, a loud buzzing hum erupted behind the heroes, causing both of them to turn ready for combat. A portal with blue smokey edges opened in the middle of the warehouse. Out from the portal stepped Cisco Ramone, a hero from a parallel universe Laurel had met under slightly more hostile circumstances in her past.

Adrian loosed an arrow at Cisco's feet, the arrowhead burying itself just inches in front of the hero's toes.

"Woah woah, take it easy Hawkeye wannabe!" Cisco shouted, his hands up in defense at his assailant. Laurel placed her hand on Adrian's bow, lowering it and giving him a nod in confidence. His eyes squinted in anger, then scoffed as he turned to continue his investigation.

"What are you doing on Earth-2, Vibe?" Laurel asked, approaching him.

"Earth Two?" Adrian asked from a distance. After a moment of no response, he waved off its mention and continued to search the downed men.

"It's just Cisco now, this whole," Cisco motioned to his Vibe outfit he was wearing, "is very temporary. But we need your help and Oliver said you turned over a new leaf."

"I have," Laurel said, looking around at the Bratva members unconscious on the ground. "And I've got a good thing going here. Can't your Earth's heroes fight this battle on your own?"

"True," Cisco said, scratching his chin. "But we're doing another crossover, and it just wouldn't feel right if we didn't have some Earth-2 representation."

"Then get the Flash, or one of the half dozen speedsters in and out of Central City," Laurel said, turning away to assist the Hood who was now prying open plywood boxes in the back of a truck.

"Oh trust me, we tried," Cisco responded, putting his hand on her shoulder to turn her around. As Laurel turned her eyes blazed in anger, at which Cisco retracted his hand. "But Jesse said she's busy with her own problems in Central City, and the speedsters she's training are way too new at this heroing thing."

"Go ahead, I've got it locked down here," Adrian turned to Laurel, a cheeky smile on his bearded face.

"But the Bratva, their connections with the Dark Archer, we are so close to figuring it out," Laurel said.

"I said I've got it," Adrian repeated, putting his bow onto his back and swinging his leg over his motorcycle. "Just don't have too much fun on the other Earth without me."

"So wait, you're just okay with other Earths now?" Cisco asked, perplexed. Adrian turned his head, still on his motorcycle.

"A long time ago, Bruce Wayne told me 'Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.' I think that applies today more than ever," Adrian responded. "Now go, you've got an Earth to save."

Laurel rolled her eyes. Adrian had always been cheesy with his exits, but she couldn't help but crack a wistful smile as his motorcycle revved up and he rolled away.

"Alright, lead the way Vibe," Laurel said, collapsing her bo-staff and attaching it to her back.

"Again, it's just Cisco," Cisco mumbled under his breath as he held out his hands and emitting a small blue beam of energy. The energy beam created another blue portal through which Cisco and Laurel jumped back through to Earth-1.

Adrian rode his motorcycle through the streets of Starling City on his way back to his underground bunker when he suddenly heard a loud metallic _SNAP_ echo in the night sky, like two steel bars clanging against each other, and everything fell eerily silent.

Lights began to flip on in every building around him, followed by terrified screams. The police radio on his bike flared to life, a cacophony of overlapping voices shouting unintelligibly. A wave of unease washed over Adrian, like an empty pit in his stomach as he had to slow his bike to a stop and turned it up onto the sidewalk.

As the bike stopped, Adrian's hand, still grasping the handlebars, began turning to ash. He raised it in front of his face, the particulates of ash floating away in the wind as the disintegration spread down his arm, beginning to eat away at his torso, until he was gone without a word.

Sirens wailed as Starling City woke to visions of horror. Ambulances, firetrucks, and police cars whizzed through the streets as emergency calls flooded in. None of the emergency vehicles paid any mind to the pile of dust next to a drab green motorcycle parked on the sidewalk.

[Central City, Missouri, Earth-1, S.T.A.R. Labs]

The S.T.A.R. Labs lounge was getting crowded as heroes slowly added to the growing group. There were nearly 20 people there now, all mixing and conversing as Barry Allen walked onto a small makeshift stage in front of a large window. He looked over the heroes from all backgrounds enjoying the lounge: his own Team Flash, Cisco, Caitlin, Ralph, and Wally, relaxing on the couches, Team Arrow, Oliver, Diggle, Rene, Dinah, and Curtis, huddled near the doorway to the rest of the S.T.A.R. Labs facility, a skeleton crew of Legends including Sara Lance, John Constantine, and Mick Rory, as well as Laurel Lance of Earth-2, all leaning on the bar being served by Ray Palmer, Kate Kane and Jefferson Pierce sharing a quiet discussion as far away from the window as they could get, and finally Supergirl's team, Kara, J'onn, and Brainy, spread evenly throughout the room making conversation. It was nice to see everyone in their civilian clothes, other than Black Lightning, even if Barry knew they were all soon going to be in the fight of their lives.

As Barry stood in front of the window, the group of heroes all looked toward the speedster expectedly. He cleared his throat, his heart always raced in moments like these, even with his super speed.

"I'm sure you are wondering why we need you all here," Barry started, eyes scanning the room of heroes. "And that's because we are facing something greater than any one of us can take on alone. As many of you know, last year the Monitor tested Earth-1 for a coming Crisis."

Barry paused as Mick Rory raised his hand at the bar, the former criminal half paying attention to the speech and half focused on draining a tall glass of amber beer. He lowered the glass from his lips, followed by a deep belch before parting his lips to speak.

"We didn't exactly get invited to that one," Mick said, nudging his glass toward Ray on the other side of the bar to refill. "Why can't we sit this one out too?"

Sara kicked Mick's shin before whispering in his ear. His eyebrows jumped on his forehead before grabbing his newly full beer.

"Nevermind, happy to be here!" Mick said cheerfully, returning to his beer. Sara rolled her eyes before raising her shot glass.

"We're sorry to have only a partial crew," Sara apologized, tipping back the shot glass and the vodka disappeared. "But I promised the Legends we wouldn't have to do another crossover. The ones we couldn't convince to stay are currently on the Waverider to Tahiti."

"It's more than a welcome sight," Barry said with a smile. He continued. "The Monitor warned us of another impeding doom. A being has been going from Earth to Earth, wiping out half of everyone, and we're next on his list."

The lights dimmed and a metallic shutter dropped to cover the large window as a projector whirred to life, casting light on the window shade. The projector showed a closeup of a face. He resembled a normal bald man except his skin had a deep purple hue and his chin bore vertical grooves stretching up to his lower lip. His eyes peered angrily from beneath his furrowed brow, yet his lips curled upward in an unsettling grin.

"Thanks to what we learned from Black Lightning, we know this guy, Thanos, is the one coming for us. He wants to massacre half of life in the universe in order to make the universe's resources last."

"Why would he not, rather than halve the populous, double the resources?" Brainiac-5 raised his hand. "Or triple? Or quadruple? Or quintuple? Or…"

"He's the bad guy," Rene Ramirez interrupted. "If he knew what he was doing, he wouldn't exactly be our problem now."

"Regardless, we have reason to believe he's going to come here to Central City to complete his goal," Barry said, giving Kara a nod. She stood and walked over to the Legends at the bar, holding out her hands, the green Time Stone in her left and the red Reality Stone in her right. Mick instantly reached for them, to which she had to pull back, giving him a shake of her head. She re-extended her hands to Sara and Constantine, respectively. She dropped the stones into their hands, both of the stones surging energy up their arms in their respective colors before subsiding.

"Those are two of the six Infinity Stones," Barry continued. The projector switched to images of the six stones, glowing blue, yellow, orange, purple, red, and green. "They hold the powers over space, mind, soul, power, reality, and time, and hold control over the fundamental forces of the universe. If Thanos gets ahold of them all, he can destroy half the lives of this universe.

"So this is where we choose to make our stand, to defend our Earth as well as every other world after ours. Make him come to us, and we put a stop to him and his plans."

As Barry finished, the building trembled, causing all of the heroes to stand in defensive stances. The lights flickered on, the metal window shade retracting back into the ceiling. Through the window, they could see a large metallic ring, as tall as a skyscraper, slowly descending outside of S.T.A.R. Labs. The top of the metal ring almost seemed to break through the clouds, the interior of the ring spinning with a bright orange hue, presumably keeping it aloft but blowing dust and debris through the street. The ring came to a stop about 30 feet in the air a half-mile from S.T.A.R. Labs, a blue beam of energy shooting from its bottom to the ground. At the bottom of the beam materialized two individuals, a bulky figure and a thinner one, who instantly began walking toward the facility.

Cisco ran to a panel on the wall, pulling it free to reveal a number pad and a lever. After punching in a quick code he threw the lever and an electrical hum began emanating from outside. Out the window the heroes could see a pale blue light as a bubble of energy created a forcefield around the entire building.

"Babel protocols initiated," a robotic voice came over the S.T.A.R. Labs intercom.

"Babel protocol?" Barry asked, keeping his eyes on the two individuals now stuck on the other side of the forcefield out the window. Kara and Oliver took their place at Barry's side looking out, Ollie already beginning to unbutton his suit jacket to change into his more fitting combat gear.

"Babel two-point-oh creates a forcefield around all of S.T.A.R. Labs, nothing gets in or out," Cisco responded, moving himself over to a monitor showing video feed of the advancing duo. Neither of the figures looked like the Thanos from the projector slides, but by the look of it they certainly weren't allies. "I created it just in case we ever had to keep a Dark Flash out. I figure it'll be enough for these guys."

The two figures now stood at the edge of the blue forcefield, patiently waiting to be addressed.

"They're waiting for us," Kara said, glancing at the other two heroes.

"Let's not keep them waiting," Oliver responded, turning to the door. "Suit up!"

[]

"Hear me, and rejoice! You are about to die at the hands of the children of Thanos," the slender figure preached. "You have the privilege of being saved by the Great Titan. The universal scale tips toward balance because of your sacrifice. Smile, for even in death you will become children of Thanos."

From the inside of the bubble approached Green Arrow, Supergirl, and the Flash, all dawning their superhero garb. They stopped a few feet away from the two strangers, separated only by the glowing blue barrier. As they got close, it became clear to the heroes that these two were not human, but only shared a general humanoid shape.

The larger figure was a hulking beast, standing at nearly ten feet tall with muscles bulging out of his sleeveless metal battle harness. His skin was almost dragon-like, with patches of calcified plate on many parts of his body, marked with pale scars of old wounds. His face was clearly alien, lacking a forehead in lieu of a bony brow setting his orange eyes in a look of permanent rage, as well as small horned protrusions coming out of his chin.

The slender character wore a dark robe-like outfit accented in gold, his face and spindly, pale hands the only uncovered bits. He had white wispy hairs coming out of the back of his head, crowning the aged look of his face which curiously lacked a nose or even nostrils. He held his hands folded in front of his body as he preached the coming of Thanos, only stopping to eye the heroes as they approached.

"Stone bearers, you come to accept your demise in the light of day," the slender alien said, motioning to Oliver and Kara as they approached. "You will be granted a swift death if you relinquish the stones without struggle."

The larger alien grunted as Kara looked at the alien in disbelief, her hands on her hips. Under her index finger, in her belt, she could feel the power stone hidden from sight. The stone felt invigorating, surging invisibly as it pressed against her hip through her suit.

"You'll walk away empty handed," Oliver shouted gruffly, his bow gripped tightly in his gloved hand.

"Does this lesser creature speak for all of your kind?" the slim alien cocked his head toward Barry in the center.

"Whoever you are, you can head right back into your spaceship and go on back to Thanos, let him know this Earth is off limits," Barry said, staring deep into both aliens' eyes. Their beady eyes showed a hints of rage, yet extreme confidence, a strong fervor for their cause.

"I am the Ebony Maw, and he is Cull Obsidian," the slender alien said, gesturing to the larger alien with one hand before returning it folded in front of him. Cull said something in an alien language, sounding almost dismissive, a small grin curled in the corner of his lips. "We are members of the great Thanos' Black Order, and through him we bring you salvation."

"Look, we can do this all day," Supergirl said, her hands on her hips and lips pursed in a tight smile. "But at the end of it all, we're no strangers to this saving the world thing. You could be the first smart ones and walk away, hang up the supervillain capes for good."

Maw looked up and down Supergirl, then his eyes floating to the light barrier between them.

"You exhaust me," Maw said, turning around. "In all the time I've served Thanos, I have never failed him. Luckily for you, he is not a coward leading from behind his lines. You will experience an honor known only to a few as Thanos' armies wash over this city like a cleansing flood. Perhaps then, you will understand your salvation."

The Maw continued walking to the spaceship still hovering, the blue light extending below once more to suck him back upward back into the ship. Cull Obsidian stood a moment, eyes passing between each of the three heroes. He scoffed, muttering more in an alien language before turning to follow Ebony Maw up the blue beam. The ship stood stationary above the city, menacingly staring at S.T.A.R. Labs.

"20 bucks says that's not the last we see of them," Barry joked, looking at the heroes on his flanks before the three of them turned to return to S.T.A.R. Labs.

"We need to get ready," Oliver said, peeking over his shoulder at the large ship. He could see bright lights flashing above the clouds, hinting at more ships in the atmosphere. "They weren't here to be friendly."

"You think they were scouting us out?" Barry asked, glancing over his shoulder as they walked.

"He said the two of them were _members_ of the Black Order, not the whole thing," Supergirl pointed out, piecing it together in her head. She turned her head upward, seeing the flashes of light above the clouds as well, her X-ray vision seeing the gathering ships. Dozens upon dozens of ships gathered, holding position just above the clouds.

"Exactly," Oliver said as they reached the doors of S.T.A.R. Labs. "The rest of the Black Order, however many there are, were definitely scouting out weak points."

"How do you know?" Barry asked, still a bit confused.

"Because it's what I would do," Oliver said, opening the entrance to S.T.A.R. Labs and entering to prepare for battle.

[][]

Stay tuned for chapter 4, Crisis Over S.T.A.R. Labs!


	4. Crisis Over STAR Labs

Ch. 4 Crisis Over S.T.A.R. Labs

Cisco and Brainiac-5 stood in the science lab within S.T.A.R. Labs, the glowing blue Space Stone resting on a metal table under a quantum monitoring device.

"Remarkable," Brainy said, his hand moving around the Space Stone without touching it. Sparks flew from it, zapping at his fingers as he got too close and slightly distorting the space to force his fingers back.

"And yet you can touch it without consequence?" Brainy continued, turning to Cisco. Cisco wheeled around in a chair from monitor to monitor around the lab. Some monitors showed spiking readouts of the Space Stone's energy outputs, others showing live recordings of the quiet streets outside, mainly focused on the ship still hovering.

"Definitely not without consequence," Cisco said, spinning in his chair until he reached a small square outlined in tape. A light flipped on on the other side of the room, illuminating a plastic mannequin with a ring target on its chest. Cisco lifted his hand in a fist at the mannequin, a blue energy swirling from his forearm to the tip of his knuckles. The energy shot forward at the mannequin, colliding in the center of the bullseye and shattering into a million plastic shards.

"Absolutely fascinating," Brainy said, now looking intently at a monitor showing the conditions of the stone. "Your powers are now tandem with the stone's, like you are drawing from its power remotely! Could it be due to quarks within the stone having bonded with your own? That would make sense as to its ability to…"

Before Brainy could finish, the building shook violently, throwing the heroes and the Space Stone to the ground. Cisco reached out with his hand, the Space Stone flying to his hand like a magnet before he tucked the gem into a pocket in his vest.

Cisco rose to his feet, before being thrown to the ground again as the building shook once more. He shook his head, steading himself on a table as he toughed out the rumbling and stood in front of a monitor showing the outside of the building. The streets were being pelted by plasma fire raining down from the sky, blowing chunks of concrete into the sky. The majority of the plasma projectiles were focused on S.T.A.R. Labs itself, though they bounced off of the shield still protecting the facility. The shield held fast, though each impact caused the lab to tremble violently.

Cisco tapped at the keyboard in front of the computer, the camera angle panned upward. There were more large ships just breaking through the clouds, about a dozen of them, large and rectangular with their large turrets pointed groundward.

A flash of electricity and flying papers signaled the arrival of Barry Allen, decked out in his crimson Flash suit.

"Is everyone alright here?" Barry asked, reaching out his hand to help Brainiac up from the floor.

"Just peachy," Cisco said, shifting on his feet as the building shook more. He tapped away at the keyboard and the cameras panned down to look over the city. He gasped slightly and pointed to the screen as the Central City skyline spread before him. The large metallic ships dipped below the cloud line all across the city, their plasma cannons pointed at the helpless skyscrapers below. "…but they're not."

Barry's eyes widened as he saw what Cisco was pointing at. Cisco gave him a nod to leave as lightning sparked around the superhero, racing back into the S.T.A.R. Labs lounge. There, he saw Mick Rory and Constantine still at the bar, holding a gathering of large brown bottles steady so that they didn't join the shattered remains of bottles on the floor. Another woosh and Supergirl arrived in the lounge, her red cape flitting about as she flew to a stop.

"They're targeting the rest of the city!" Barry shouted above the rumbling building. "Kara…"

"On it!" Kara shouted, flying out of the building.

"Constantine, can you do anything to help?" Barry asked.

"One can always count on a magician," Constantine said, pulling one of the brown bottles free and sneaking a swig before placing it back into Mick Rory's arms. He held up his hand, the small red stone held between his index and middle finger as it glowed a faint red.

"Barry, the shield!" Kara's voice rang in Barry's ear. He looked out the window to see Kara's blue and red figure floating at the edge of the shield rim. Barry steadied himself on the bar with one hand as the building continued to shake, his mind racing. His eyes focused on the clouds over the city, the ships' cannons moving into position downward.

Barry reached up to his earpiece, holding it for a brief second before speaking over comms.

"Cisco, is there any way to lower a hole in the shield large enough for Kara?" Barry asked.

"No, it's all or nothing," Cisco's voice replied. Barry could hear the clacking of keys and falling metal from his side of the radio.

"Kara needs to get out there," Barry said, "or all of Central City will turn to glass."

A second passed. Another second.

"Cisco, take down the shield!" Barry shouted, the cannons on the ships glowing blue as they warmed up. The shield disappeared and Kara flew out with a sonic boom. Barry smiled before realizing they were uncovered, looking out above S.T.A.R. Labs before the next volley struck.

Above the facility, however, was a colossal red hieroglyph of an eye, the red pictogram absorbing the plasma bolts. Barry looked around, surprised, to see John Constantine with the Reality Stone glowing in his hand, straining as a drip of sweat rolled down his forehead. Constantine peeked his eyes open to crack a shaky smile at Barry.

"The stone's more intuitive than it looks," he said, closing his eyes again to concentrate. Barry smiled before looking out the window once more, seeing Supergirl barreling through the thick hull of a few ships as she spun gracefully in the sky. A few ships untouched by Supergirl descended further than the cloud line, to a height similar to Ebony Maw's dropship. One by one, the lowered ships started emitting the blue vertical lights as dark masses of alien forces descended onto the streets, looking like an ocean of bodies as they ran.

"Everyone get ready, they're coming!" Barry shouted into his earpiece before lightning enveloped him once more as he sprinted through the facility, alerting the rest of the heroes before getting ready to intercept.

[]

Sara Lance, now donning her White Canary suit with her hair pulled back, threw open the large glass doors to S.T.A.R. Labs, her escrima sticks firmly gripped in each hand. Two lightning bolts raced past her down the street at the advancing aliens force, zipping left and right to keep them at bay.

"What are we dealing with?" came a voice from behind. Sara turned to see Ralph Dibny, the owner of the voice, and Laurel Lance, her sister's doppelganger from Earth-2, both dressed in their superhero disguises. Seeing Barry and Wally holding off the front of the building, Sara looked to the other sides of S.T.A.R. Labs. One side was flanked by the river, Martian Manhunter and Brainiac hovering above the water to take out the flying foes, and the other side another long stretch of road with even more hostiles racing in.

"Hold the line," Sara said, clanging her sticks together as she sprinted forward, followed closely by the other two heroes. She knew the other heroes had posted up within S.T.A.R. Labs or were covering other angles and she was meant to stay inside to protect her elemental stone, but she'd be damned if she didn't get in on the fighting.

The aliens came in all shapes and sizes, six-legged gorilla-like beasts sprinting on all limbs on the ground, rolling through the streets in waves. Chitauri warriors, which Barry's team had showed the rest of the heroes before to get them up to speed, rode through the sky in their metal chariots, weaving between the buildings on their way to S.T.A.R. Labs. A third species ran between the six-legged ones, humanoid as they ran with rifle-like weaponry in hand, their black and rust-colored armor covering them head to toe.

Dibny's torso stretched and his hand enlarged as he struck the first blow to the alien's front line. His fist plowed through the first line of six-legged aliens, knocking two dozen of them into the brick wall of a warehouse on one side of the street. As his arm was extended out, the aliens continued to scramble toward the heroes, up and over Elongated Man's arm, a few staying at the limb to claw and bite at it.

"Back off the arms! You're, feral, we get it!" Dibny shouted, quickly retracting his arm, shaking off the hitchhikers as he did.

"Dibny, focus on the sky," Sara shouted, her eyes on the chariots high above. Ralph nodded, throwing one of his arms onto a glass skyscraper and pulling himself about 20 feet off the ground. From there, he used his other arm and leg to throw punches and kicks across the street, clotheslining and knocking the chariots off of their path and crashing into the alien horde below.

"I've got this," Laurel said, putting her arm in front of Sara, pushing her back. Laurel took a deep breath and held it, the horde of aliens growing ever closer. A hundred meters. Seventy meters. Forty meters. Some of the aliens with rifles began firing, large blue plasma bolts flying past the heroes' heads.

As the alien horde got within 30 meters, Laurel let her canary cry loose, the air in front of her pushing forward with so much force that the waves were nearly visible. The scream sent aliens flying, the ones still on the ground and conscious falling to clutch their bleeding ears, incapacitated.

Laurel turned to Sara, a grin on her face as the street stood still with the bodies of the aliens, the ones just falling to the ground from the scream impact turning and running back to their ship in fear.

"Impressive," Sara said hesitantly, still not used to seeing the doppelganger of her dead sister. A shadow passed overhead, drawing Sara's eyes before she looked in shock. She pushed Laurel with both hands before dipping her shoulder to roll to her side just before the overhead object plunged a large double-sided glaive into the concrete.

Sara looked up to see a robed alien figure, their black and gold hooded cloak reminiscent of Ebony Maw's, yet his face was more human, with a slightly elongated chin and extremely pale face with dark, tattoo-like markings on his chins. The creature snarled and pulled its glaive from the concrete with ease, spinning it and swiping at Sara's head. Sara bent backwards, the blade just missing her nose as it passed over her.

"You will relinquish the stone or your life," the alien sneered. Sara rose, keeping an eye on her adversary as she extended her hand to help Laurel to her feet as well. A foot stretched to the road, followed by Elongated Man in total, his hands on his hips in a heroic stance.

"Dude, I don't know which member of the dark dinguses you are but you better take your pointy stick back to Pluto," Ralph said, taking a step to put himself in front of the lady superheroes.

"I am Corvus Glaive, esteemed member of the Black Order, and I have not the time for your idle chat!" the alien said, thrusting his glaive at Ralph's chest. Sara and Laurel gasped in shock, but instead of stabbing into him Ralph's body warped with the blade, the pointed edge still able to be made out through the later of his body. Ralph puffed out his chest, forcing the blade back to the alien's side.

Corvus wasted no time, wheeling around with his fist to strike Dibny in the face. His head and neck stretched with the punch, the force reverberating through his body as more of him elongated until his feet left the ground and he was thrown into an alleyway, crashing into a pile of black trash bags.

Laurel took a deep breath to ready her scream, but before she could let loose Corvus reached out with a flat hand, chopping her throat and staggering her gasping for air. He swung his glaive overhead at Laurel, only to be knocked away by Sara, her escrima sticks palmed and ready.

The alien snarled wordlessly as he thrust at the White Canary, using his off hand to deflect the incoming bo-staff blows from Laurel. Though the two Canaries had the alien outnumbered, he was keeping up miraculously, using his strength and height advantage to keep pressing at Sara and seemingly able to fight off Laurel as an afterthought.

An upward thrust of the back of the glaive snapped Laurel's bo-staff in two, followed by Corvus delivering a quick kick to her chest, sending her sliding backwards. She smacked into a car left on the street, the back of her head smacking into the roof knocking her unconscious and falling to the concrete. He then focused his energy on the hero in white, spinning his glaive almost faster than Sara's eyes could track, but if her time in the League of Assassins had taught her anything was that it didn't matter where her opponent is, it's where they're going to be.

The instant Sara got a split-second reprieve from the blows, reached into her belt to pull out a throwing knife, flinging it at Corvus' shoulder. The alien instinctively moved his glaive to block to projectile, but leaving his knee exposed as Sara put all of her energy into a powerful kick, bending it backwards. Corvus staggered backwards, hollering in pain as Sara now pushed her advantage, throwing blow after blow with her escrima, the alien still able to keep up blocking.

While Corvus was on the back foot, an elongated arm came flying in and socked the alien square in the jaw, drawing his gaze. Ralph Dibny came sprinting down the street, his legs elongated a bit to both step over the alien bodies on the ground as well as stand at the same height as Corvus Glaive.

Corvus snarled at Dibny approaching, throwing the bottom of his glaive back at Sara at just the right moment to fling her onto her back. He spun around fast as lightning, holding his weapon at the ready.

"It didn't work last time, bucko," Dibny smiled, lunging in for a punch. Corvus wasn't fazed, however, as he turned his hand on his glaive as its bladed edge began vibrating. Before Ralph could connect another punch, Corvus thrust his glaive forward into Dibny's chest.

Ralph's smile dissolved into a perplexed brow furrow as he felt a piercing pain where the glaive now rested in his chest. He slowly moved his head down to see the vibrating blade cutting through his suit and through his body just to the right of his sternum, blood flowing from the wound onto the blade and dripping to the ground.

Corvus pulled his blade from the hero, Ralph falling to his knees clutching the hole in his chest in disbelief. The alien smirked as he wiped the crimson blood from his glaive with his sleeve.

"No!" Sara shouted, her eyes wide as she rose to her feet. A bright green light glowed through her pocket as she shouted, engulfing the street in emerald light. She looked down into a pouch of her belt, seeing the Time Stone glowing brightly.

As Sara looked back up the entire street seemed to be frozen in time. Corvus Glaive stood with a menacing smile staring at Sara, the blood falling from his weapon stuck motionless in the air. Ralph still held a horrified look in his eyes, Laurel 15 feet away her eyes just peeking open as she came to. Sara cautiously took a step forward, this frozen world eerily silent.

As she reached Corvus Glaive she reached behind her back, retrieving a folding knife. She folded the 6-inch blade out before plunging it into the alien's chest with an angered shout, the edge sliding in with little resistance. She left the knife in Corvus' chest as she turned her attention to Dibny on the ground. She heaved him onto her shoulder, the effort made only slightly easier as his body was frozen into its kneeling pose as opposed to going limp.

Sara began the trudge back to S.T.A.R. Labs with Dibny on her shoulders, his bloody wound staining her white suit where it touched. She entered the lab, passing by other heroes frozen in time. Caitlin and Cisco stood at attention at the monitors of outside, the frame unchanging from Corvus Glaive still in the street. She smirked before remembering the dire situation, continuing to the medical room of the lab.

20 minutes passed for Sara, she assumed less than a blink of time to the outside world, as she laid Ralph on a medical table within the lab. After moving Caitlin in front of the downed Ralph, she began to make her way back out of the facility.

She opened the door to exit the facility and felt a wave of fatigue wash over her, having to catch herself on the glass pane. She looked up in a daze, her lightheadedness slowly subsiding. Her attention was pulled to the street that the speedsters had ran down earlier, seeing Barry and Wally still trailing lightning as they continued to hold off a large portion of the alien forces, though their forms in the distance were still slowly moving.

As Sara saw this, she realized time was still passing. She had left Laurel behind and time was still passing.

She broke out into a sprint to help her sister's other-earthly doppelganger. Her lightheadedness returned in force as she exerted herself, tripping over her feet as she tumbled to the ground scraping her forehead against the pavement, but she pushed herself onto her feet through pure determination. She felt weaker as she pushed forward, like trudging through waste-deep sand with lead weights resting on her shoulders.

She stumbled once more, her shoulder catching her fall as she impacted the asphalt. She peeked her eyes open to see one of the lightning bolts racing toward her, faster than it was moving before as the time freeze began to let up.

"Sara!" she heard as Barry Allen appeared in front of her, the lightning still sparking around him. "How are you…"

"Save Laurel…" Sara interrupted, finding herself short of breath. Barry reached down, seeing the green glow from her belt pouch. She brushed him away, struggling to rise to her feet through great strain.

"You're going at super speed," Barry said, placing his hand on Sara's shoulder to keep her prone. "Your body isn't used to burning through the calories you need to to be fighting against time like this."

"I can… I need to…" Sara struggled, but she felt a darkness try to creep upon her consciousness as she exerted herself more.

"You have to unfreeze time. I can save Laurel, but you can't keep this up forever," Barry told her. His eyes told her he was telling the truth, and she nodded slightly. She closed her eyes, focusing on the pulsating energy coming from the rock in her pocket. As she slowed her breath, the stone emitted another bright green light. She saw the lightning overtake Barry as he raced away, disappearing in a streak of electricity as time regained its normality.

She remained on the ground for a brief moment, gathering enough energy before rising to one knee. Sara looked down the street where her fight was, more than 150 meters away. She saw Barry's lightning trail whisk up Laurel, zipping back past her with a rush of wind, though Corvus Glaive was now nowhere to be seen down the street.

Sara heard a deep roar through the street, seeing a tall rectangular spaceship descend to crash into the street where their fight with Corvus was, the edges of the ship crushing the buildings that were too narrow for the landing. A large bay door lowered, the metal plate cracking the asphalt on impact and out came running hundreds of more aliens, clawing and scrambling over each other to rush S.T.A.R. Labs.

She struggled to her feet, grabbing her batons and extending them with a flick of her wrists. She steadied her breath, the fatigue from the effects of the Time Stone still partially draining her.

A flash of lightning passed in front of her as she saw the yellow uniformed Kid Flash, Wally West, flashing her a pearly grin.

"Need a lift?" Wally smirked at his old captain, resting his hands on her shoulders.

"I'm not going to say no," she smiled wearily. "You remember Salvation, 1871 Wally?"

"I don't think now's the time to take a walk down memory lane," Wally said, looking around to keep vigilance against any straggling aliens. Sara shook her head, feeling faint from exhaustion.

"No Wally, find the team in Tahiti 2017. We need to pull a Salvation…" she said as she fell unconscious and Wally whisked her off into S.T.A.R. Labs.

[]

"So… did you, like, know Batman?" Curtis Holt asked, speeding up to a jog to catch up to Batwoman. Kate glared at him through the corner of her eye and kept walking in silence. They walked through an interior hallway of S.T.A.R. Labs, Rene Ramirez and Dinah Drake following closely.

"I always knew Batman was real," Curtis continued, rambling with his hands as much as with his mouth. "Oliver always doubted it but it just makes sense that vigilantes would pop up in a crime ridden city like Gotham. Not that Gotham is any better than Star City… not saying that it's a worse city than ours! Just saying statistically…"

"Do you know the concept of listening for danger requires just an ounce of silence?" Kate growled. They passed by the command center, Cisco and Caitlin tapping away and swiping through computer screens. The monitors showed the alien invasion commencing in full, sparks of lightning as the twin Flashes engaged a horde, with another group of allies rushing off to meet another horde.

One of the monitors flashed red, Cisco turning around to see the four vigilantes as soon as it did. He held out his hand, shooting a blue portal to open just to their side.

"Barry is running into resistance by the sewer outflow near the docks," Cisco said. As soon as he said sewer, Rene's nose scrunched in disgust.

"You sure you need all of us out there?" Rene asked, almost able to taste the stench coming out of the swirling portal. "You sure you don't need someone watching your back?"

As he said that, an alien's snarling head poked through the portal, its jagged teeth gnashing at the nearest bit of flesh. A woosh of cold air rushed past the shocked heroes, striking the alien. It literally froze to a halt, the surface of the alien frosted over with a white icy coating.

Though the alien was frozen stood it was only on one foot and thus terribly off balance. It fell over as quickly as it was frozen, shattering into a thousand shards as it hit the ground, scattering its remains across the tile floor of the lab.

"I think we've got it covered," Caitlin smiled, her hair now snow white as her Killer Frost persona took over.

Rene cursed under his breath, kicking bits of shards of the alien's remains. Batwoman shook her head, heading into the portal first.

"Buck up boys," Dinah said, extending her bo-staff before jumping into the portal as well. Curtis and Rene shared a look of desperation before leaping in.

[]

John Diggle stood at one of the entrances to S.T.A.R. Labs, an open lobby with a two-story tall ceiling, windows all the way up. Outside the windows, Diggle saw the spaceships in the dozens across the city, hovering menacingly. He was no stranger to aliens, thanks to his experiences with everything from the Dominator invasion a few years prior to the team-ups with Supergirl, but during these times he always thought back to almost a decade ago where his biggest problem was keeping track of wayward millionaires.

"How much longer 'til I get to burn something?" Mick Rory asked, tapping his heat gun against the glass window.

"I wouldn't worry about not having enough to burn," John said with wary eyes, his grip tightening on his pistol. Outside, the street was deathly still. They could hear the rumbling of battle outside, just out of eyesight as the other heroes surrounded the building fighting off unseen threats.

Diggle looked behind him at the other heroes, all varied degrees of suited and ready. Mick anxiously tapped the glass windows with his heat gun, John noticing his finger dangerously resting on the trigger. Ray Palmer stood in his Atom suit, fiddling with the whirring mechanical device on his arm. Jefferson Pierce paced back and forth in his Black Lightning suit, his eyes constantly flashing up to the skyline, flinching every time a plasma blast rumbled the facility above.

"Not that I'm complaining, but why is the ship above us the only one firing?" Ray asked, peeking out the window to gaze upon the mystical barrier.

"They're baiting us out," Jefferson said, flaring lightning in his hand and dissipating it to warm up. "We keep the shield up and they start firing, they count on our good nature to protect the city then pick us apart for the stones… one by one…"

"We won't let that happen, not this time," Oliver Queen called out, emerging from an interior room garbed in his Green Arrow attire.

A rumble shook the building, drawing everyone's attention outside. The street remained quiet except for a harsh wind scattering debris on the other side of the glass. The ship above S.T.A.R. Labs ceased its firing, the whipping wind outside the only noise in the open room now.

"Is this how they came for the stones on your earth?" Oliver asked, sidling up next to Black Lightning.

"They only stopped their bombardment to let their shock troops, the Black Order, advance. The four of them hit us from all sides, divide and conquer," Jefferson said, eyes trained outside. "The big one and the wizard slamming us from the front, while they had two others nimble ones, a female named Proxima Midnight and a male Corvus Glaive, assault our flanks."

"Question is, are we the front or the flanks?" Diggle asked as the wind died down, the silence outside unsettling.

"You don't do the same job twice or else the pigs start to wise up," Mick Rory piped up, a single bead of nervous sweat trickling down his brow.

A crash of breaking glass drew the heroes' attention upward. A humanoid alien descended from the shattered window frame, a long multi-pronged spear in their hand. The alien wore a tight, armored battle suit, long dark blue hair framing her feminine, yet sturdy face as she landed in the middle of the room, the heroes all around her.

Without a word, she threw a swift kick into the Atom first, sending the exosuited man flying back, and then continued to swing her spear in an arc around her, slashing a tear in the chest of Oliver's suit before the other heroes could take a step back to avoid the blade.

"Burn!" Mick was the first to counter, raising his heat gun as the lights burned a bright red. He pulled the trigger, the handheld device spitting out a deadly stream of fire at their attacker.

The alien fell to her knees, body laid back as the flames flew above her narrowly missing Black Lightning who had to dive out of the way. The alien's spear came swinging around, catching Mick in the ankles and sending him toppling to the ground before she stood again, eyes focused on Oliver Queen as she reached out for his neck.

Oliver broke her grip throwing his forearm into her wrist, spinning to plant a kick into her jaw. To his surprise, however, she barely flinched as the kick connected, her teeth clenched in rage. She thrust her spear at Ollie, his light movements allowing him to barely dodge every strike.

A string of gunshots erupted as Diggle advanced, his pistol raised to defend his friend. The bullets ricocheted off of the alien's suit, only drawing her anger as she thrust the back of her spear toward the ex-special forces member. The pistol was knocked from his hands, clattering to the tile floor as the back of the alien's spear began to glow a bright blue. Diggle's eyes widened as a plasma bolt shot out from the spear, burning deep into his chest armor and knocking him back.

The alien turned her attention back to Oliver, who had taken Diggle's distraction to ready his bow with an arrow, pulling back and letting it loose at the alien's torso. The arrow tip exploded on impact with her chest, charring the armor plate and sending her staggering back a step.

Bolts of electricity engulfed the alien as Jefferson Pierce joined the fray, lightning shooting out from his hands as the lightning pattern on his suit glowed a bright yellow from the overflowing power. The alien held out her spear to absorb most of the electricity, yet she slowly slid backwards toward the glass door of the building.

"Thanos won't take this earth like he took mine, Proxima!" Jefferson shouted, his anger fueling his lightning as he continued to push forward.

"We won as soon as we stepped foot on this planet, you need to accept that," the alien snarled, her back now pressed against the glass of the building. The heroes heard thundering shaking before Proxima leapt into the air, kicking off of the glass window to plant herself above the prone body of Diggle.

Another thundering crash of glass was heard as Cull Obsidian shattered his way through the building, throwing a long metal hook attached to a chain at the distracted Black Lightning. Jefferson held his hands up in a futile attempt to block the blow, but stood unharmed as he peeked his eyes open to see a giant hand catching the hook.

"Leave him to me!" Ray Palmer smiled, now grown three times his size thanks to his Atom exosuit as he threw the hook hammer back at Cull Obsidian. Jefferson nodded seriously before turning his attention back to the female.

Proxima Midnight now stood with the blade of her spear inches from John Diggle's unprotected neck, staring at Oliver readied with his bow.

"Give up the stone, and I will let your friend live," she said, poking the blade ever closer.

"Don't do it Oliver!" Diggle shouted, his eyes trained on the spear that began to glow its bright blue.

Jefferson Pierce wasted no time lighting up the electricity in his hands, shooting it out at the spear and pulling it into his own hands. Proxima looked up furiously, clenching her fist as a retractable blade shot out from her gauntlet.

"Now Rory!" Oliver shouted, pulling the alien's attention away again as Mick stood with his heat gun extended, eyes burning with anger. The ex-criminal pulled the trigger, sending the flames streaming out setting Proxima ablaze.

She ran flailing, attempting to put out the flames as Oliver loosed an explosive arrow at her back, the explosion blowing her through the glass of the building as she crashed into the pavement outside, flames still crackling.

Oliver reached a hand down to help Diggle onto his feet, brushing off a bit of debris from his shoulders as he found his pistol to holster. As he looked back up, the female alien was already gone, a trail of char leading away from S.T.A.R. Labs. Oliver cursed under his breath, wondering how anyone or anything could have taken that much damage and walk away.

"What do we do with this guy?" Ray asked, drawing everyone's attention to the behemoth alien now unconscious on the floor, a normal sized Atom leaning proudly against his body.

"We find some way to get him into the pipeline," Oliver stated, looking out of the window to the rest of the city. Outside, he still saw Supergirl and Martian Manhunter darting through the skies destroying the hovering spaceships and dropping them into the river. The area found a new silence barring the crackling of fire still smoldering the female alien's body, though Oliver could hear a faint rumble of an unseen army running about just out of sight in the distance.

"Hero down! Ralph's down!" Caitlin Snow's voice rang out through the heroes' comms, grabbing all of their attentions. Ray extended his arm, tapping a device on his forearm and shooting out a blue beam at Cull Obsidian as the alien behemoth shrank to the size of a rabbit. He grabbed the now shrunken alien before joining the rest of the team racing back to the central area to see their fallen comrade.

[]

Supergirl extended her fist as she plowed through another ship, the metal tearing like tin foil as she punched through the hull and out the other side. She looked back on the ship as it started descending, her green companion J'onn J'onzz flying in like a blur to push the ship toward the river.

"That's the last of the troop ships for now," Supergirl called over comms to J'onn, keeping her eyes scanning through the now empty skies. The only ship that remained was the much more massive ship sat hovering above S.T.A.R. Labs which her eyes settled on.

"Then we have one left," J'onn said, dropping the last ship's remains in the river and finding his place next to Kara in the sky, pointing at the large ship still firing plasma blasts down upon the mystical barrier protecting the lab building.

Kara nodded, beginning to angle herself to fly toward the ship before being interrupted by a call over the comm system.

"Hero Down! Ralph's down!" the two heroes heard Caitlin call out. Kara flashed her eyes at J'onn, already beginning his flight to S.T.A.R. Labs.

"I'll make sure they're alright," J'onn said. "Finish clearing the skies, call if you need backup."

Kara hesitantly nodded, worried about her friends below, but she knew that they were in good hands as she clenched her fist, flying toward the last ship.

The ship was dauntingly large, its central hub alone larger than S.T.A.R. Labs below, with two massive wings, twice the size of the hub apiece, jutting out from the sides. It continued to rain plasma fire down upon S.T.A.R. Labs, the cannons spread out across the wings as well as the pointed central hub.

Supergirl gritted her teeth as she flew directly toward the center of the ship, her hand outstretched in a clenched fist as she felt the purple energy of the Power Stone flow through her. She tore through the hull of the front of the ship, flames and sparks of electricity left in her wake.

The sight of a large humanoid figure stopped her in her tracks as she entered what she assumed was the throne room of the ship. She turned herself upright, the wind in her wake rushing past as she came to a stop. She found herself in an open aired room, larger than seemingly necessary to house a circular platform in the center of the room, elevated slightly by a half dozen rings of stone stairs. In the center of this platform was a dark throne, the large humanoid occupying the seat hunched over with his fingers folded beneath his chin. She could see his left hand was adorned with a golden ornate gauntlet, with holes in every knuckle base and one center one on the back of the palm seemingly fit for jewels though they must have fallen out or gone missing.

Though this being was hunched over, Kara could clearly see that this humanoid was Thanos from the briefing in S.T.A.R. Labs, his purple hued skin being a dead giveaway. He was clad in gold and bronze armor from head to toe, a smooth open-faced helmet covering the top of his head and sides of his face. He locked eyes with Supergirl as she entered, unmoving until she lowered herself to a walk.

"It's over Thanos! We've destroyed your army's ships, I'm giving you the chance to pack up and head back to whatever home you came from." Supergirl said, cautiously walking forward. Her footsteps echoed in the eerily quiet chamber. The giant rumbled to life, unfolding his hands to reach up, taking his helmet off and setting it on the arm of the chair.

"I know what it feels like to lose, and trust me when I say I have not lost yet, not even close," Thanos' deep voice echoed through the chamber. Supergirl stood at the base of the stone steps, looking up to the purple giant still sitting. A faint footstep from behind piqued Supergirl's interest, she turned her head to see the wizard-like Ebony Maw half hiding in the shadows, though nonhostile.

"The symbol on your chest, a family crest?" Thanos continued, pointing to his own chest and then to the approaching hero.

"The house of El," Kara returned, her fists unclenching. In her experience, someone willing to converse is more than capable to be reasoned with, and with all luck turned without a fight. "It stands for hope from my home planet, and the strength we gain from our friends."

"Your home planet…" Thanos pondered, taking a step off of the throne to pace back and forth. He stood at an astounding 13 feet tall, though Supergirl was not intimidated by his stature. "Krypton, was it?"

Kara took a moment, her brow furrowed in confusion.

"How did you…" She began. Thanos began stepping down from the platform, his heavy footsteps bringing him to the same plane as Supergirl. She took a step back as he walked closer, taking her feet a few inches off the ground to hover.

"I've been to fifty-one universes, the majority of them had someone they called their savior bearing the same crest," Thanos said, now standing a few feet from Supergirl. Though she tensed up, she could tell Thanos remained calm as ever, nonchalant as his vision drifted from her eyes to the middle distance above her and back to her. "I've heard the tragedy of your people dozens of times, and I know that pain more than any other. My planet, Titan, was once a beautiful utopia too. But my universe shared the problem of many universes at their peak, too many mouths, not enough to go around. And when we faced extinction I proposed a solution."

"So you thought genocide was the best solution?" Supergirl questioned, her hands raised in disbelief.

"At random, dispassionate, fair to rich and poor alike," Thanos sounded irritated, like he had given this reasoning a dozen times before. "They called me a madman, but my worst fears came to pass as my planet… my species… gone. A slow, agonizing death because they couldn't see the greater scope of reality."

"A madman sounds about right!" Supergirl retorted, floating higher into the air to look the purple alien in the eyes. "The right choice is never murder. So what, you want to conquer the multiverse? Because your people didn't listen to you?"

"No, I am a survivor," Thanos said, turning to pace to Supergirl's side. "And now all I can do is share my wisdom with the remains of the universe. No planet should starve to death, consumed by their greed. Every universe is finite, their resources finite, and every sentient being I have come across has no comprehension of this. I snap my fingers, and trillions will know mercy, on either side of the coin."

"Trillions will die!" Supergirl shouted. While she could follow his logic, she still could not believe the depths of this being's depravity.

"Trillions have died," Thanos growled, his brow furrowed, turning to Kara once more. "Across the multiverse. My allies, my enemies, my family… sacrifices on both sides for the greater good. And they are all now on the path to prosperity never before possible without me. The hardest choices take the strongest wills."

"Willpower is something we have to spare," Supergirl said, her fist clenching as she had had enough of this. She swung with a right hook at Thanos' chest, denting the metal as the Titan was flung back 15 feet into his throne, collapsing into its shattered ruins.

Thanos rose to his knee, his eyes filled not with pain, but with rage. Supergirl didn't let him recover as she jetted forward her arm outstretched to clock Thanos in the jaw. She was surprised, however, as the Titan was able to move his head out of the way just in time, reaching his massive hand out to grab Kara's arm. He redirected her momentum, slamming her into the rubble where his throne had sat, placing his other hand on the back of her neck, burying her head into the jagged stones.

She grunted, feeling a bit of pain even through her extreme durability, but she could feel that if nothing else, she held the strength advantage. She kicked her legs behind her, scorpion kicking Thanos in the side of the head, breaking his hold on her for a split second, just long enough for her to dart out from his grasp. She spun around in the air, angling herself once more toward the mad Titan, her blue heat vision igniting in her eyes.

"Maw! The lights!" Thanos shouted. On command, Ebony Maw, still lurking in the shadows, tapped once on a holographic monitor. The room illuminated with red lights placed across the entire ceiling, the heat and energy coming off of them instantly recognizable to Kara. Red sunlight.

The heat vision immediately left her eyes as she felt her powers dissipate in the sunlight, even her flight leaving her as she fell out of the sky. She crashed to the ground with a thud, falling hard on her shoulder. She looked up to see Thanos getting to his feet, brushing off dust from his shoulder armor.

"Across the multiverse, I have met dozens of Kryptonians, many that shared that seal on your chest. They all fought admirably… stubbornly…" Thanos said, breathing heavily but otherwise uninjured. He motioned to the lights above. "Red sunlight generators, the harnessing the power that burned through my Planet's atmosphere. Who would've thought? Took us fourteen earths to figure that out, too many… unnecessary deaths."

Kara struggled to stand, feeling more powerless than ever until she remembered the stone in her belt. She reached down, gripping the purple Power Stone tightly, feeling her veins renewed with energy. Every muscle in her body tensed as she shouted. Though the energy she now felt was not the same as when she was filled with solar energy, she felt powerful all the same.

"The Power Stone, but do you know how to wield the strength you hold?" Thanos asked with a smirk, still advancing on Supergirl.

"Come and find out," she said, the purple energy running up her arm and into her torso. She leapt forward at Thanos, clocking him with a right hook, then a left. Thanos stepped backwards with every blow, waiting for the opportune moment to attack.

"Impressive, but you aren't embracing its true power," Thanos said, wincing as every blow glanced off his blocking arms.

Supergirl, furious, overextended a punch, giving Thanos just the opportunity he needed as he dodged to the side. He struck out with a knife hand, chopping the superheroine in the throat and staggering her. Her windpipe closed shut, but she did not let that stop her. She tried to counter with a kick, but Thanos trapped the leg with one palm, bringing his other down on her knee, bending the joint backwards.

Kara howled in pain as Thanos let go of her leg, instantly limping on the injury. She did not let that stop her, however, as she felt the Power Stone throb with energy in her palm. She went for a backhanded punch, though she could feel that she was slower with her leg injury. Thanos noticed it too.

As she extended the backhanded punch, Thanos dodged, bringing his knee up to her elbow as his own gauntleted fist shot forward to punch Supergirl in the head. The simultaneous blows jolted her hand open as she felt the Power Stone leave her grasp, rising in the air. Her eyes went wide as she tried to reach out and grab it, but it was too late as Thanos snatched it between his thumb and forefinger.

Kara, now lacking any source of power, fell to the ground again, feeling pain shooting across her entire body as she looked up helplessly. The Power Stone radiated energy in Thanos' grasp, sending streaks of purple energy up his arm as he gingerly placed the stone into the slot of the gauntlet just above his index finger's knuckle. His growl rumbled from deep within his chest as the energy melded with his body, slowly subsiding with a toothy grin.

"J'onn… I need help…" Supergirl was barely able to reach up to her ear to radio for assistance.

"On our way! Stay out of trouble until we get there!" J'onn's voice returned immediately. Thanos stood over Kara, reaching his bare hand down to grab her by the throat and lift her off her feet. Kara kicked, but she was powerless to do anything against the mass of muscle and armor as she thrashed, her cape the only thing feeling her struggle.

"I hope your planet remembers you fondly," Thanos said, looking deep into Kara's eyes. She beat her fists against his hands around her throat, though he did not budge. "You can die knowing that they will thrive even in your absence. They will…"

Thanos was interrupted as a figure bulleted up from the floor between the two, catching Thanos' arm and throwing it upward.

"Pardon me," Brainiac-5 said as he broke Thanos' grip on Kara, carrying him with his arm raised and throwing him into the rubble that was once his throne. Kara fell to the ground, gasping for air as a familiar green figure floated up through the hole made by Brainy.

"Let's get you out of here," J'onn J'onzz said with a smile, holding his hand out for Kara.

J'onn's hand, however, stopped, trembling in the air. He looked at his hand confused, but the invisible force threw him into the dark wall of the ship. His telekinetic attacker, Ebony Maw, floated above Kara, glancing down at her through the corner of his eye before turning his attention to the Martian.

"You are a fool for bringing the stone here," Maw said, floating away from Kara to edge closer to J'onn still imbedded into the wall. "A mistake you will pay for with your life."

"You should never have come to this planet," J'onn said, dislodging himself from the wall. "But I will not let you or your master succeed."

J'onn jetted forward at Maw, his fist extended. Ebony Maw lifted his hand casually and wires shot out from the floor of the ship, wrapping themselves around J'onn's arms and legs. J'onn looked down, more irritated than anything, before ripping through the restraints. He swung his fists at the Maw, who ducked and weaved to deftly avoid the blows.

They flew over Kara's body as they traded blows. Kara squinted through blurry vision, her body still feeling weakened in the red light. The fight between J'onn and Maw seemed to be going in the Martian's favor, all he needed was to connect once to put the Maw down, but Brainy seemed to be on the stark opposite side of his fight.

The blue form of Brainiac was able to throw punches and kicks into Thanos' body, dancing around him and dodging the massive fists thrown by the Titan. Brainiac's hits, however, seemed to do little to no damage as Thanos simply got more frustrated, unable to connect with the Coluan.

Brainy slid between Thanos' legs to his rear, kicking at the back of his knees, finally having the effect of knocking him to a kneel. He jumped over Thanos in a flip, connecting an elbow to the back of Thanos' head. Thanos reached up with a massive fist, however, and caught Brainiac by the chest, his knuckles white with crushing force.

"Brainy!" Kara reached her hand out, still unable to gather the strength to stand. J'onn finally connected a right hook to Ebony Maw's temple, knocking him to the ground unconscious just in time to turn to see Thanos grab Brainiac by the waist with his other hand, holding him in front of his chest as he extended his legs to a stand.

"You don't know it yet, but I am the only end to this story. I am… inevitable," Thanos growled, glancing back and forth between Kara and J'onn. The purple Power Stone glowed as he pulled his hands apart. Brainy shouted in pain as Thanos pulled, making eye contact with Kara in his final moments.

"Run!" was Brainiac's last word as his body buckled, ripped in half by Thanos' strength. The tubes and sparking wires within his Coluan body exposed on either disconnected halves as Thanos tossed Brainiac's remnants to the ground.

"We have to get you out of here!" J'onn shouted, cradling Supergirl in his arms. She threw a weak punch into J'onn's chest, tears welling in her eyes as she stared at Brainiac's now emotionless face.

"Get Brainy!" She shouted. J'onn paid her no mind, flying to the hole that he and Brainiac-5 had entered the ship through. Thanos held out his gauntleted fist, the purple stone glowing as he shot a purple beam at the heroes. J'onn and Kara barely escaped the ship as the purple energy beam passed inches above J'onn's head.

Kara continued to beat on J'onn's chest as they flew down through the sky toward S.T.A.R. Labs. Though they were back in the sunlight, she still felt physically drained. Her vision blurred, the last thing she saw before passing out was the sight of Thanos looking down through the hole in his ship as they flew away.

Stay tuned for Ch. 5, Gambler's Ruin!


	5. Gambler's Ruin

Ch. 5 Gambler's Ruin

The rhythmic beating of the three heart monitors filled the medical room, a deafening silence otherwise as J'onn J'onzz hovered his hand over Ralph Dibny's head. Ralph's chest wound was bound with a large white bandage wrapping around his torso, monitoring wires and IVs attached to his head and wrists.

On the bed to his side lay Kara Danvers, a large set of bright yellow lights hanging above her like a heat lamp, with only a wrist-mounted heart monitor strapped to her. Her breathing was steadier than Ralph's, yet her chest barely moved with her weak airflow. Sara lay next to her, an IV set into her arm, her breathing steadiest of them all. Oliver Queen, Cisco Ramone, and Caitlin Snow all stood along the walls of the room, anxiously looking at their comrades stretched out on the beds.

"He's holding on, but his mind is struggling," J'onn said solemnly, moving over to Supergirl with his hand over her head similarly. "She will recover in time, the combination of the red sunlight and the Power Stone drained her cells. Until she recovers, she is only as powerful as any non-Kryptonian. Sara is only suffering from overexertion, your speedster recovery serum is already working wonders."

"We'll have to make do," Oliver said gruffly, walking out of the room into the S.T.A.R. Labs control center. Cisco rushed behind him as he made his way toward the pipeline.

"I don't know what your plan is, if you have one, but we can't just brute force this guy," Cisco questioned Oliver, a pep in his step to keep up with Oliver's determined strides. "Our strongest hero went up there and had her ass handed to her and now we're down an Infinity Stone. Not just any Infinity Stone, but the _Power_ Stone, doesn't get any more on the nose than that."

"So we try something new," Oliver said, rounding the corner to the pipeline entrance. It was a long hallway, capped at the end by a transparent door holding a single cell about 10-foot by 10-foot with padded interior. Though the containment unit seemed unconvincingly flimsy, Oliver knew there were dozens of other rotating cells within the facility holding some of the most dangerous metahumans without flaw.

The behemoth Cull Obsidian stood with his back hunched in the cell, both of his shoulders nearly touching the walls on either side of his enclosure. His eyes remained locked with Ray Palmer who stood as the sole guard of the prisoner, his gaze only broken to glance at the approaching heroes with a scoff.

"Ah just got here as he regrew!" Ray said with a smile which was instantly wiped away as he saw Oliver's and Cisco's straight faces. "He hasn't said much, or anything really, but if I were a guessing man I'd say he's not super happy."

Oliver blew past Ray on his way to stand within a foot of the cell's clear door, looking up at the beast within.

"Can he understand me?" Oliver asked, not breaking eye with Obsidian.

"He should," Ray said, reaching up to his wrist mounted computer pad. "I've retrofitted the cell with a version of the Waverider's universal translator."

"I can hear you just fine, insufferable humans," the creature within the cell growled, his deep voice echoed in the hall.

Ray and Oliver shared a glance before Ollie walked to the clear door of the cell.

"You should have killed me while you had the chance, humans," Cull Obsidian growled, looking deep into Oliver's eyes.

"What is Thanos' plan?" Oliver growled back, staring undeterred into the creature's black shark eyes. Obsidian stared back, unflinching for what seemed like an eternity before he cracked the slightest hint of a smile through his cragged face.

"He has acquired the Power Stone, has he not?" Obsidian asked. Cisco pivoted his foot nervously in the background, drawing the alien's attention briefly.

"Then what has been started cannot be stopped," Obsidian continued, leaning back against the wall of the cell. "It is destiny. Thanos is inevitable."

"I don't know if you know who you're dealing with, but saving the world is kind of our deal," Cisco stepped forward to place himself peeking just over Oliver's shoulder. Obsidian locked eyes with Cisco, his eyes panning down to his belt in which the Space Stone was hidden. A devious grin cut across his face before returning his gaze to Cisco's eyes.

"You are next, stone keeper," Cull Obsidian snarled, leaning up within inches of the door, fogging the glass with his heavy breath.

"So there is an order to this?" Oliver deduced. "Some ritualistic madness?"

"Not madness. Order." Cull said. The building shook as he said this, staggering Ray and Cisco slightly, though Oliver stood staunchly staring at the imprisoned alien. "Your annihilation is imminent, may Thanos find the worthy among you."

Oliver grunted, turning and motioning to the others to follow him. Cisco tapped on the control panel before they exited, the cell being retracted into the pipeline out of sight and a large opaque sliding door closing where the cell used to be. The last he saw of Cull Obsidian was his piercing eyes and his toothy smile as the door slid closed.

Cisco and Ray followed Oliver to the lounge, finding John Constantine still standing with the red Reality Stone floating between his hands, dark bags formed beneath his sunken eyes and hair matted with sweat.

"Bloody nice of you lot to check in," Constantine said between raspy breaths. Ray rushed over to put his hand on John's forehead, to which John took a step back shaking his head.

"John you're burning up, the stone must be draining you as you use more magic," Ray said, eyes flashing to the red stone throbbing with energy.

"I kind of gathered that, Squire," Constantine said. The building rumbled once again, the stone pulsing with a bright flash before setting back to normal. "The Shield of Horus spell is linked directly to the strength of my soul, and it ain't as shiny as it once was."

"Oliver, you have the Soul Stone, don't you?" Ray turned to Oliver, who nodded with hesitation. "You can use it to give him a boost."

"We don't know how these stones work," Oliver said, keeping an eye on the window to the outside. The wind whipped dust and debris across the window. In the streets below he could see Barry and Wally racing to mop up straggling aliens along with a few other heroes. Something didn't feel right, but he couldn't place his finger on it. "Kara used the stone and we lost one of our greatest defenders when it drained her Kryptonian powers. Sara was knocked unconscious after a few seconds of using her stone and there's no telling when she will wake up. Cisco uses his stone and suffers nothing. The point is, these stones are unpredictable, we can't risk it."

Constantine's eye floated to the belt pouch that he knew Oliver kept the Soul Stone, his arms shaking through the struggle to keep his spell alight.

"If it goes wrong then we'll all be too dead to care, right mate?" Constantine said with a forced smile.

Oliver hesitated, turning to look at Cisco and Ray. Their eyes suddenly glanced upwards, panicked, and Ollie instinctively reached for his quiver. The window shattered above, raining glass shards down on the heroes, causing Oliver to shield his eyes.

Proxima Midnight fell into the room, the entire right side of her body and face blackened with char from their previous encounter with the warrior woman. She held her spear out like a rifle at Ray before the heroes could react, the tip of it glowing a bright blue before shooting out a plasma blast impacting the Atom in the chest. The blue plasma sparked across the entirety of his suit, shutting it down as the blast sent him flying across the room and throwing him through the wall.

Oliver brushed the glass from his suit, nocking one of his arrows and taking aim at Midnight, his fingers letting the arrow loose. Before the arrow made contact, however, it stopped in midair and drifted back to the window. Ollie turned to see the robed figure of Ebony Maw floating down through the crashed glass, the arrow drifting into his hands as he inspected it before setting foot on the ground.

"Primitive," Maw said with a scowl, holding out his hand to send the arrow back at the vigilante. Oliver reactively grabbed another arrow out of his quiver and shot the projectile out of the air. He ran toward Maw, swinging his bow to smack the alien in the head but was disarmed as Maw flicked his wrist, his telekinesis tearing the bow from Oliver's hand and clattering on the ground. Oliver continued undeterred, swinging his fist at the noseless alien. Another wave of Maw's hand send Oliver flying backwards, sliding across the tile ground to the feet of Cisco.

Cisco looked down at Oliver, but quickly had to turn his attention to Proxima as she assaulted him with her spear. He rolled out of the way of the thrusting spear, though the bladed end caught his shoulder and tore the fabric, drawing a little blood.

"Switch me!" Cisco shouted at Oliver, holding out his hands to create a portal beneath Oliver's bow and another simultaneously over the downed hero. The bow dropped through the portal, reappearing through the portal above Oliver, who reached up to retrieve his weapon. He instinctively reached behind him, pulling an arrow and shooting Proxima between her shoulder blades. She turned with a fury, her charred eye red with rage.

"You!" She shouted, spinning her blade behind her to break off the arrow lodged into her back.

"Me," Oliver said with a shrug, readying another arrow. Proxima kicked Cisco as she ran to Oliver. He fired his arrow, but Proxima swung her spear in a small arc, deflecting the projectile to the tile.

She swung her spear high, causing Oliver to duck and swing his bow at the alien's knee. She was better trained than many of Ollie's usual foes, however, as she raised her leg to avoid the blow, using the raised leg to plant a kick center into the vigilante's sternum. Oliver staggered backwards, reaching for a flechette attached to his boot and flicking it at his attacker. She was unflinching as the dart sliced across her uncharred cheek, drawing a few drops of blue blood. She thrust her spear at Oliver, who dipped his shoulder to avoid the blow and grabbed the weapon while still in her hands.

Oliver yanked the spear to try to disarm Proxima, but her grip was tight as she only used the momentum to bring in a headbutt. He staggered backwards, a bit dazed, but his vision cleared just in time to see Proxima lunging toward him, spear pointed at his chest. Ollie brought his bow up to block, the pronged end catching the bow and throwing him to his back.

"I will pry the stone from your cold, dead hands," Proxima whispered, pushing her spear ever closer to Oliver's chest.

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, love," the British voice of John Constantine rang out. Proxima looked up just in time to see John wielding the red stone, glowing brightly between his hands. Proxima flipped her spear around to disarm Oliver before wrenching her arm back to hurl her spear at the magician.

As she let the spear fly, the metal rod spontaneously burst into a flurry of butterflies, a wide grin spread across the magician's face as the Reality Stone glowed a bright red. Proxima snarled, clenching her fist to extend a gauntlet blade along the back of her hand before charging at Constantine. He spun his hands around the hovering gem, a swirling black and red portal forming out of thin air between the two. Proxima's eyes widened but it was too late as she was already midair lunging into the portal before the swirling black abyss swallowed her whole, Constantine clapped his hands together and the portal snapped shut in tandem.

"Seventh circle of hell seems about right for her lot. Good luck trying to get out of there," Constantine smiled, though stumbled in exhaustion as he took a step to Oliver to help him onto his feet.

Oliver took the magician's hand before surveying the now wrecked room, seeing no sign of Cisco or Ebony Maw.

"Cisco. Where did he go?" Oliver asked sternly.

"Ol' noseless took him in the chaos," John said, taking out a cigarette and his flip lighter. His eyes showed even more exhaustion than before, the Reality Stone seemingly being a larger drain on his spirit than the magician was used to. He pointed out the window, two specks in the distance flying upward to the large ship in the sky, presumably Maw and Cisco.

Oliver pulled an arrow from his quiver, placing it on the string and pulled back his bowstring, only to slowly let it back to resting position, realizing they were out of range. He cursed under his breath.

"Is there anything you can do to pull him back?" Oliver turned to Constantine. Constantine looked at him with tired eyes, his breathing noticeably labored.

"With the stone, maybe, but I don't know if my soul can handle much more of this mate," John said, staring at the red stone in his palm. Oliver hesitated, but retrieved the orange Soul Stone from a pouch on his belt and extended it to the magician.

"Maybe you can use this," Oliver said. Constantine's hand reached tentatively toward the stone for a brief second, unseen thoughts passing behind his eyes.

"What happened to it being unpredictable, not worth the risk?" Constantine asked through his cigarette clenching lips, clutching his side in a brief wince of pain.

"We risk losing another stone to Thanos if we don't, we need to turn the tides," Oliver said, turning his hand over to dump the Soul Stone into the magician's grasp. The orange energy ran up John's arm, causing him to tense up before it subsided, his breathing returning to normal.

Though his breathing returned to normal, Constantine's face remained haggard, a profound guilt lying in his eyes. He waved hand in front of his face, his appearance magically reverting to a healthy pallor.

"I'm sorry to do this mate, but I've got my own souls to look after and this was the only way," Constantine said, another swirling red portal forming behind him. Oliver looked in confusion as John took a step backwards into the portal, both stones glowing in his possession.

"The kid will be alright, I know you won't let him down," Constantine continued, stepping fully into the portal before it collapsed, leaving Oliver alone in the room bewildered.

The room was deathly silent, the heroes fighting outside echoing gunshots in the distance the only sound in Oliver's ears. Rubble in the room shook as Ray Palmer emerged from the hole in the wall he was blasted through, brushing off dust and debris from his exo-suit.

"What'd I miss?" Ray said with a smile, but his expression was quickly wiped away as he saw Oliver's grave look and Cisco and Constantine were nowhere to be seen.

[]

Cisco came to in a cavernous, metal room. He floated in the air horizontally, the ground 4 feet beneath his dangling limbs. A single bright blue light imbedded into the floor lit up the room, partially blinding the superhero from its odd angle. What he could see was the vague thin shape of his kidnapper, the Ebony Maw, with multiple floating tube-like crystals hovering around him. Each of these crystals ended in a needle-like point, their microscopically sharp tips glinting in the light.

The mechanical humming of the room was cut by Maw breaking his silence.

"In all the time I've served Thanos, I have never failed him." He walked between the dozens of floating crystals, running his fingers along the needles drawing a high vibrational hum. "If Thanos returns and I have not procured the Space Stone from your incredibly irritating body, there would be… judgement."

"I don't know anything about the Space Stone, Voldemort," Cisco said, trying to move his head away from the needles inching closer and closer to his face.

"You cannot hide the stone from me forever. Your powers reek of the Space Stone's stench," Maw said, delicately running his fingers along the shaft of one of the crystals.

"My powers were given to me by the Particle Accelerator," Cisco scoffed, a single bead of sweat dripping down his forehead. Before capture, Cisco had opened a small pocket dimension to stuff the Space Stone into. He could still feel the energy pulsing from the dimension that only he could open, its dimensional doorway resting inches from his fingers at all times.

"That may be so, but we won't let that stop our fun," Maw said, turning his back to Cisco. With a wave of his hand one of the crystals edged closer, the glinting tip merely touching Cisco's cheek. The light of the crystal illuminated his skin, highlighting the nerves webbing throughout. A wave of unbearable pain rushed through the hero as it took all of his strength not to scream in pain.

"Painful, aren't they? They were originally designed for microsurgery, and any one of them can cause apoptosis on a massive scale. They only start with the nerves, so it will be only a matter of time before your pain will subside, soon after there will be nothing left of your corpse but the Stone."

Cisco struggled to breathe through the pain, immobilized by the stasis field, as he shouted into nothingness in the metal chamber.

[]

Three heroes crawled through the ventilation shafts of Thanos' ship, only wide enough to be shoulder to shoulder with the dark metal walls. Ray Palmer, shrunken a bit in his A.T.O.M. suit to walk comfortably in the chamber, led the party, with Mick Rory and Curtis Holt, hot on his heels.

"'Take the fight to them' Rich Boy said. He's not the one who has to cram himself into the damn air vents! Why do we even trust that green prick to put together a good prison break?" Mick's raspy voice raged as he crawled. They passed over vented grate after vented grate, peeking in each to see nothing but passing alien guards.

"Look on the bright side, Mick, this is the easier job," Ray whispered, tiptoeing through the metal vent before stopping before one of the grates with a bright blue light coming through the bars, holding his hand up for the rest of the crew to hold position. They looked through the slotted grate into a large, mostly empty room, the bright blue light emanating from a floor panel, above which hovered Cisco Ramone, his long hair covering his face hanging low despite being levitated a few feet off the ground.

Curtis reached into the inner pocket of his leather jacket, retrieving his two metallic T-Spheres and letting them hover above the grate. The Ts emblazoned on their fronts glowed red as they emitted small lasers that cut the vent free. Ray caught the vent as the T-Spheres finished the job, placing it within the vent so it wouldn't fall. He pressed a button on the wrist of his suit, shrinking to the size of an ant before hopping onto the back of one of the T-Spheres, floating silently down into the interrogation room.

The room was larger than it appeared from the view of the vent, but still its only inhabitant was Cisco in the dead center. Along one of the walls was a small glowing holographic panel and a doorway, the only way in or out, sealed shut.

"Coast is clear," Ray said over communications before hopping off of the T-Sphere to enlarge himself in front of the holographic panel. Curtis followed down into the room nimbly, followed closely by Mick's heavy boots thudding onto the ground.

Ray swiped through the screen, tapping away at the buttons and caused the blue light below Cisco to power down, dropping the hero into Curtis's arms.

"You're okay, buddy, we've got you," Curtis asked, the hero dazing in and out of consciousness.

Cisco shook his head wearily, even the small amount of movement bringing him wincing pain.

"They got it… the stone… I'm so sorry," Cisco eeked out.

"So we came all this way for nothing?" Mick fumed, pacing in front of the door. Curtis glared at him, but his attention was brought back to the fallen hero as he coughed through his pain.

"They'll be after the Reality Stone next…" Cisco said, looking at Ray, knowing he was last with the master of the dark arts. "We have to warn Constantine… where is he?"

[Triumvirate of Hell, Hell]

Constantine stepped into a broad column of blood red light at the seat of the massive three thrones. His coat flapped behind him as he threw a cigarette stub onto the ground, stomping out the embers.

"John Constantine…" an older man's voice rang down from the center throne, dripping like venom. Though the three men atop the thrones were obscured in darkness, the speaker leaned forward into the light to illuminate his haggard face. He was an older gentleman, with millennia of hate and suffering behind his eyes, snow white hair slicked back to frame his stern face. John could just make out the incredibly well-maintained black suit and tie peeking out from the shadows.

"Satan, First of the Fallen, good to make your acquaintance again," Constantine nodded in his direction, keeping ahold of his nerves in front of the embodiments of evil.

"We've been looking forward to hearing the bunk you're peddling, John," the one on the leftmost throne called down, leaning into the light as well. He was a portlier man, the ravages of time much more severe in the creases of his face, similar slicked back white hair topping his head, an all blue suit fitted tightly to his frame.

"Belial," Constantine nodded, before turning his attention to the third member on the right. "And Beelzebub! Never the most popular, but you were always my favorite."

"As you never fail to mention," Beelzebub called down, leaning into the light. Taking the form of a bald man, his skin pulled taught over his angular skull revealing very sunken eyes and sharp cheek bones. His suit was the most eye-drawing of the triumvirate, bright yellow with a deep black thin tie cutting down its center, white almost skeletal hands poking out of the sleeves.

"Tell us, Constantine, why have you come to us this day?" Satan asked, folding his arms in front of himself. His black wings unfurled, spreading behind him menacingly shading the practitioner of the dark arts below.

Constantine looked unimpressed by his display, taking a side step to step back into the light.

"I've come with a generous gift," Constantine said, his hands open to his sides. "For being such great and enviable rulers as yourselves."

"You did not come here for flattery, Constantine," Belial slammed his fist into the arm of his chair.

"True," John twisted his toe on the ground, reaching into his overcoat to retrieve a cigarette to slip between his lips. "I take it that you have noticed a certain rise in inventory, as it were, down here in Hell."

"It is true," Satan said, his piercing eyes glaring downward at Constantine. "Thanos has been filling our coffers with a nearly infinite pool of souls. A valuable, albeit unwitting, ally,"

"The triumvirate of Hell needs an outside ally? Sounds like incompetence rearing its ugly mug," John spat back. "Do you not feel the rumblings of overpopulation in the corners of your own domain?"

"Fear keeps them in line," Belial spoke up, his fingers balling into a fist. "Fear will keep them in line for the foreseeable future."

"Oh? And when the streets run full of souls a bit unhappy with their placement in hell, will they take kindly to your oppression? Thanos is travelling the multiverse, snapping away half of life in every single one. How many universes can Hell take before you're up to your knees in innocent souls?"

"You've tipped your hand, John Constantine," Satan cracked a toothy smile. John recoiled a bit. "You're here for that precious little soul you damned… what was her name? Astra Logue?"

John gritted his teeth.

"So it was Astra, beautiful little girl…" Satan called down, his mind wandering. "You came to bargain for her soul. You have not come to bargain for your own damned soul? You haven't learned from your mistakes, have you John?"

"It's different this time, I've come bearing a bargain!" Constantine shouted out, reaching within his coat. His fingers sparked with energy as they grasped the Soul Stone, holding it aloft. The triumvirate above all flinched, but quickly relaxed back into their smug expressions.

"What gem could possibly hold sway over the rulers of Hell?" Belial asked. Though fronting confidence and arrogance, John clocked a single bead of nervous sweat on the dark lord's brow.

"Ah but you already know what this is, don't you?" John smiled, turning the gem between his knuckles. "The Soul Stone holds sway over all mortal souls, something that may come in handy in the coming times."

"And what do you ask for in return?" Satan asked, slowly sitting back into his chair, the orange gem below reflecting in his dark eyes. "All that for the girl?"

"I wouldn't suppose it would be too much to ask for brief command of Hell's armies?" Constantine smirked. "Earth isn't in the best spot right now, but with a little nudge from your grandiose power we could be all good up top and you'll be in possession of one of the greatest artifacts known to man- or demon-kind. What do you say?"

"And the girl?" Satan tapped his chair in contemplation.

"Naturally, a soul for a soul as it were," Constantine said, slowly examining the Soul Stone.

The triumvirate above whispered in inaudible tones above, causing John to tap his foot impatiently. He cursed as his cigarette burned down. He tapped the ashes onto the floor and placed it back into his mouth.

"We have come to a decision," Satan said, arms folded in his chair.

"Out with it then."

"You may choose," Beelzebub said, the corners of his mouth twisting into a devious grin. "It would be hardly fair to give the great John Constantine everything he desired. You are in Hell, after all. You may have your darling Astra, or brief command of our armies, not both."

"Astra." John said without hesitation. "I choose Astra Logue."

"You never change," Satan's toothy smile shone down on the magician. "An old sap to the end. And you think she'll accept you?"

"No, but I can still do right by her," Constantine muttered. He brought his eyes up just in time to see Satan swooping down on his black wings, landing just in front of the practitioner of the dark arts. He reached out with a single finger placing it beneath John's chin, the sharp nail digging into his flesh.

At the demonic lord's fingertip, his sharp nail drew a drop of blood.

"Treachery. John Constantine, does your hubris know no bounds thinking you could deceive the sovereigns of sin?" Satan snarled. He brought his hand up to his mouth, licking the blood from his finger.

"Just needed to buy some time," John said with a cheeky smile. "Have fun with the gift I left you though."  
With that, the illusion began to disappear, starting with the orange stone between his fingers which faded into nothingness. The rest of his body faded with a wipe of red light, revealing the blue humanoid figure of Proxima Midnight, bound with spectral chains around her wrists and ankles. The last of John to fade was his face, ever grinning with the cigarette burning down to the stub.

Satan looked into Proxima Midnight's eyes which burned with rage. He turned dejectedly and flew back to his throne.

"Find John Constantine," Satan snarled through his teeth. With a flick of his wrist, Proxima Midnight's spectral chains disappeared as she clenched her fists. "Bring me that stone, preferably accompanied by his severed head."

[]

Constantine strolled through the back alleyways of Hell, a cocky grin on his face as he peered into the red Reality Stone glowing brightly. His illusion in front of the triumvirate should be playing out masterfully as he toured the city for his objective.

The city of hell was filled with the souls that rushed past in the streets. Other than the exhaust of boiling hot steam coming from the streets, the sulfur scented steam rising from the grates, the palpable despair coming off of every shambling body, and red clouds throbbing with evil energy overhead, John felt like the city of Hell could exist right beside any of top-side's urban jungles.

His fingers were pressed against the Soul Stone as he ducked through alleyways and rundown buildings, feeling its energy hum in a game of hotter/colder. Constantine kept ahold of the other stone in his other hand within his coat, not knowing how much longer he could keep the illusion up, but it would have to last until he found Astra.

He came to a stop outside of a strip club, a bright red and pink neon sign flashing "The Flesh Pit" above a blood red doorway. He flicked his cigarette into a pile of refuse before checking the red stone again. The Reality Stone blinked twice, before fading to a duller red and settling down.

"Bollocks, thought that'd last longer," Constantine cursed to himself before pushing his way through the door.

Though the interior of the building still held the distinct sulfur stench, the stagnant smell of old fruit and strong liquor permeated the interior, clinging tightly to the velvety furniture and all of the patrons. The dark red lighting of the interior bathed John in a haze as he pushed his way through the crowd, all in a daze in the musty club.

John made his way to a back room through a drawn curtain, entering a small room only decorated with a gaudy crimson couch and a dark wooden table, upon which were stacked golden coins, names engraved into each one as Constantine recognized them as damned souls of those yet to perish, one of the most precious forms of currency in Hell. On the couch counting the soul coins was a petite woman in her early 20s, dark curly hair covering her face. The corner of her lipstick-covered mouth turned up in a wicked smirk.

"Johnny…" the woman's voice flowed like poisoned wine. "Seems like you're having a hard time staying away from Hell these days."

"What can I say, I'm a creature of habit," Constantine's heart raced. The woman that sat at the couch was Astra, the innocent girl he had sentenced to Hell so many years ago, now all grown up and frighteningly well-adjusted to her hellish environment. While John's mind tried to overlay the innocent girl's face onto hers, Astra's face had the smallest hints of her demonic surroundings in it from her fierce eyes to her devilishly wry smile.

"I told you if you ever came back here I'd rip the soul from your body, John," Astra said, plucking a single soul coin from the pile in front of her. The spun the coin between her fingers slow enough for John to notice his name emblazoned into its surface.

"That was if I couldn't find a way to change your fate," Constantine said. Though he exuded flawless confidence, he felt as though Astra could see straight through his façade.

"Big claims from the mighty John Constantine," Astra's eye twitched as she clutched John's soul coin between her index finger and thumb. "What bold schemes have you brought this time?"

"No schemes," John said, reaching into his jacket's pockets. He pulled out both stones as both glowed brightly in each fist. "Just need to trust me, love."

With that said, the orange and red stones glowed in Constantine's hands, illuminating the small room the two were in. The energy flowed up through John's veins as he clenched his teeth in pain. He could feel the fiery energy given off by each of the celestial jewels, yet beneath it all he heard whispers.

Overwhelming whispers filled John's head, strange visions of unknown realities flashing before him in a scarlet glow. He focused his mind on Astra, her life spreading before him like movie reels originating from her ghostly orange apparition in the midst of this power surge.

"John, what the hell is happening?" Astra shouted, confused. She was caught in the power surge too, yet she looked on at the warlock as the sparking energy ran up his neck on either side to edge its way onto his face.

"Reversing fate…" John gritted his teeth as he finally saw the reality stream he was waiting for. A younger woman, Astra in her youth, tears streaming down her face as she embraced John in his own past. Another entity, engulfed in blue flames, reached out a clawed hand for the girl, its demonic blue eyes fixated on the girl. He looked upon the scene like a dream or an out of body experience, as if he did not relive this memory every waking moment of his life.

But this time he had the chance to change everything.

With all of John's mental willpower, he focused on the Soul Stone, exchanging Astra's soul with his own as the demon dragged her away. He could feel his present body burn in torment as he did, whether it was from his tortured past soul catching up with him or from the energy of the stones he did not know.

A welling of hatred boiled inside of himself, his eyes turning a demonic black as he could feel his own teeth lengthening into pointed fangs, no doubt a result of years of demonic presence catching up to him, but he focused his remaining amount of sanity to focus on the Reality Stone in his left palm. The gem throbbed with energy and John shouted in pain, feeling as though his arm was about to burn away, but his appearance quickly reverted to human as the past vision faded away.

"Johnny! John!" Astra shouted as Constantine fell to the ground. The energy dissipated from his body, but left his arms up to his face charred black like the outside of a burnt steak.

John weakly turned his eyes to meet Astra's, the pain shooting through his entire body as he barely clung to consciousness. The corner of his mouth cracked a smile as he saw Astra's face, no longer sensing the demonic features of before. Her kind eyes fell upon the sorcerer, reaching to take his hand in hers. Constantine reached up with his hand before noticing the red Reality Gem still in his palm. Before he could retract his hand…

*SHWING*

A red-hot blade swung from the curtained door, slicing downward. Before Constantine even felt pain, he heard the thunk of flesh hitting the ground. He turned his eyes downward to see what used to be his scorched left forearm and hand, landing twitching on the ground.

Astra shrieked in fear as she attempted to take a step backwards, only to find the blade of their assailant pressed tightly against her neck. The assassin grabbed the red stone from Constantine's still twitching hand on the ground, keeping the blade pressed against Astra's neck as she locked furious eyes with the sorcerer.

"Forfeit the Soul Stone and the girl lives," Proxima Midnight stood triumphantly between Constantine and the newly cleansed Astra.

John's mind was still fogged from using the stones in tandem, but his mind began to clear as the pain shot through what used to be his left arm.

"You…" Constantine's eyes flashed between Proxima to Astra, the latter's eyes full of fear. Though he had saved her soul, he could not help but know in his heart that she was unprepared thanks to the stones' cleansing.

'Stupid twat…' Constantine thought to himself, looking at the orange Soul Stone in his right hand. He reached for the inside of his coat pocket to fish out a cigarette with his left, only to be reminded of his recent dismemberment.

"Bollocks… a little help with the cig?" John whispered through the overwhelming pain.

"No more tricks, or I'll drown you in her blood," Proxima snarled, pressing her blade deeper into Astra's neck, drawing a single drip of crimson that trickled down her skin.

"Alright! Alright…" Constantine panicked. Though he prepared for nearly every scenario, he thought he would have more time with Astra. He would guarantee that he had a few more moments.

Constantine held out his right hand with the Soul Stone, palm up and defenseless.

He hung his head as Proxima snatched the stone from his hand, gritting her teeth only slightly as the energy dissipated through her arm. A menacing grin spread across her lips as her eyes remained fixated on the gem before slipping it into a pouch on her waist.

"Astra… let Astra go," Constantine demanded in his hushed voice. He could feel that the Soul Stone was helping him hold onto the last shred of life he had left, and with it gone he felt himself fading fast.

"A vow kept," Proxima said, retracting her blade from Astra's neck as she slid it into its sheath. She grabbed Astra by the back of the neck and pushed her into John's dying body on the ground before taking a step backwards.

"Constantine is yours! Send me back to Earth." Proxima shouted into the air. As she did, a flaming pentagram formed underneath her, a red flash of energy and the alien assassin was gone with puff of smoke and smell of brimstone.

"Johnny… what did you do?" Astra asked, tears in her eyes as he knelt by Constantine's dying body. John smiled as he brushed the hair out of her face with his remaining hand.

"A couple more moments, love," John coughed. The taste of iron was strong in his mouth, but he reached into his jacket to retrieve a cigarette, placing it between his lips. He snapped, creating a small flame on his fingertip and lit it, taking in a few last puffs as his vision began to fade.

He whispered ancient Aramaic into his hand, reaching it to his chest and clenching his hand into a fist. As he did, a bright white glow shone out from the gaps between his fingers. He looked pained as he extended his hand to place the glowing light into Astra's chest.

"You… live a good life," Constantine said as the blood began to drain from his cheeks. "That bit of magic will take you back to the Earth."

"You're coming with me, John! I'm not leaving you behind!" Astra said, tears streaming down her face. She reached out but as she did she saw that the light Constantine gave her began to spread down her arms, causing them to lose feeling as they glowed a bright white.

"Not this time," Constantine weakly said with a smirk. "This time you get to live. Find your mum, send her my love."

A tear dripped from Astra's cheek and before it could hit the ground, a blinding white light engulfed the room and, just as quickly it faded. The tear hit the ground as John Constantine let his eyes closed, the cigarette dropping from his smiling mouth.

/Stay tuned for Ch 6 in the future! I apologize for the long times between uploads, ran into a slog with this chapter because I only planned to make it five chapters, looking more like 7-8 now. Still slowly working on the rest of this! Thank you all for being patient.


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